Well, good morning. It's really an honor to be here on Palm Sunday preaching this message as we look towards Holy Week. and celebrating the resurrection next Sunday. And the hinge of redemptive history. What a privilege to be with you and teach this morning from your word.
My name is Stephen Blue. I'm one of the staff pastors here on the pastoral team. As I said, it's just a great honor to be able to. Teach on Palm Sunday. We're going to be in Luke chapter 19, as you can see up there on the title slide.
Make your way there. There are Bibles. If you don't have a Bible, there are Bibles on. underneath many of the seats in front of you. Um Just grab one of those and make your way to Luke 19, verse 28.
Luke 19, verse 28. We'll get there in just a minute. I really just want to kind of cut right to the chase, though, on what this. Yeah. section of scripture is all about.
All four of the gospel narratives, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, talk about Paul. Palm Sunday and Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem.
So, if I could cut to the chase and give you the thrust of what the interpretation is, it's these two quotes.
So, let me share them with you. What does Palm Sunday mean from Tim Keller? It means he's king. If Jesus is going to do anything in your life, you have to know him as king. And then the New Testament scholar Daryl Bach says the whole narrative structure of this passage challenges us.
To ask ourselves where we place Jesus, is He the humble King of peace? And glory. Or is he not? And uh Quite literally everything in your life hinges on those questions. Yeah.
That's the basic interpretive thrust of this passage and really all of the narratives on Palm Sunday and the triumphal entry. Pastor Brian did a great message on this, on the kingship of Jesus. in July of 2021, so you can go on our website and look at that if you want. God's Word is inexhaustible. It's living.
It's active. We believe that here very much at Lifeline. And so there are multiple angles within an interpretation that are great to look at. You could spend every day of your life. Looking at the same passage of Scripture, and God, by the power of His Holy Spirit, is going to not change the interpretation of His Word, but He's going to bring you things and angles to look at that you might not have seen the day before.
And so one of the things I want to do I was struck. You'll hear me probably repeat this a few times, but I was really struck by the way Jesus has an eternal perspective, multiple sort of layers. to the perspective with which he views his past, his present. His future in eternity. He didn't have a beginning in the first place.
So he has a perspective eternally that I think can really mark us in some very practical ways. We can't be Jesus, obviously. But if we can More and more look at those kinds of perspectives that he had, I think it'll make a big difference in our life.
So that's really going to be the angle I'm going to look at throughout this passage. He's king. And that has lots of ramifications for you. and what you decide and what you think about him. and his kingship.
really does matter. And we'll highlight But it's not going to be the direct highlight of our time this morning. And I've just been really captivated in my own personal life lately. How does God work? Past.
What's he doing right now? How can the future eternal perspective inform what we're doing now? And so I think you see a lot of that in this passage.
So that's what we're going to do. We'll look at his perfect perspectives. As King Jesus And then we'll look at what are our responses for that. You'll see on your notes there, that's the whole thing, every section. Perspectives of King Jesus, how do we respond?
Okay. I want to illustrate this though with a video clip. This is a 24-year-old video clip. It's not the best quality at all out there. You'll see that.
But I think it's really powerful. And then we'll launch out from there.
Okay, so take a look at this. You don't have to know a lot of things. In order to make a huge difference for the Lord. in the world. But you do need to know a few things.
That are great. And be willing to live for them and die for them. People that make a difference in the world are not people who have mastered a lot of things. They are people who have been mastered by a very few things. that are very, very great.
If you want your life to count, You don't have to have a high IQ and you don't have to have A high EQ. You don't have to be smart, you don't have to have good looks, you don't have to be. From a good family or from a good school. You just have to know A few basic Simple. Glorious.
Majestic Obviously Unchanging eternal things. and be gripped by them. and be willing to lay down your life. For them, which is why. Anybody in this crowd.
Can make a worldwide difference. Because it isn't you. It's what you're gripped with. I was privileged to be in that crowd 24 years ago on some farmland outside of Memphis, Tennessee. I'd never heard of John Piper before.
Until that that moment. And over the last couple decades that I've rewatched the sermon. many, many times. To sort of remind myself and be refreshed myself in what it means to be gripped by. an eternal perspective for the cause of Christ.
It's helped me a lot. And I really think that call he was giving that day. Uh in the year 2000 Um was really just to say be gripped by the eternal. Have the perspective of Jesus and then watch what that does in your life. Uh That was the call for a bunch of the the crowds just full of young people.
There was no shortage of old Navy cargo shorts in that crowd from the year 2000, and including my own. If you ever read the book by John Piper, Don't Waste Your Life, or you heard that book, it was based a couple years later out of this sermon. Very powerful stuff. That call applied then, and it still applies today. And my prayer and my hope is that.
God will see. that same application out of our passage today.
So with that backdrop Uh and the perspectives of King Jesus. Let's go see. what those pers perspectives are and what that compels from us. Um If you look with me at verse 28, again, Luke 19, verse 28. Let's read together this first section.
He says this. And when he had said these things, Yeah, Jesus had just told a parable, right?
So when Jesus had said these things. He went on ahead. Going up to Jerusalem. When he drew near to Bethpage and Bethany, At the mount That is called Olivette. He sent two of his disciples, saying, Go into the village in front of you.
where on entering you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever yet sat. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, why are you untying it? You shall say this, the Lord has need of it. Verse thirty-two.
So those who were went away and found it. Oh, we're sent away, sorry. and found it just as he had told them. And as they were untying the colt, the owner said to them, Why are you untying the colt? And they said, The Lord has need of it.
So Perspective just means the capacity to view things rightly, right? to view things in their truest most eternal state. And that's what we're going to look at here again, section by section.
So what are some of the perspectives of King Jesus that I see here? First one is persistence. If you were to go back to Luke 9, verse 51, you will see that Jesus says, that it's said about Jesus that his. Face is set. towards Jerusalem.
Yeah. John 12 tells us he purposed to come to the hours he's about to walk into this holy week, looking towards the crucifixion and resurrection. Hebrews 12, our scripture reading, said it was for the joy that was set before him. that he endured.
So Jesus persists towards the reconciling work of the king's cross. Luke very much so illustrates this throughout that you'll see there's very purposeful intention on Jesus' part to get to this week. We're walking into right now.
So it shouldn't surprise you when you look at verse 28 and it says that he went on ahead. Jesus has a perspective. eternally of continual persistence. Secondly, he's got a perspective of pursuing and one of pursuit. Verse 29, if you look there, it says he drew near.
That word means. That phrase means approaching to join, not just like you're getting close, but you actually have intention to draw close to the Something or someone. As you draw near, he certainly was geographically getting closer to Jerusalem, but that wasn't his only purpose. He had a perspective of wanting to pursue people and for them to join in relationship with him. Third, He's got a perspective that is compassionate.
And it condescends. And what I mean by condescension is not the patronizing, arrogant kind of thing. but one in which he voluntarily descends as a servant. Um Look, in verse 31 and in verse 34, it says that he has need. Jesus doesn't need anything.
He's the only one in the universe that doesn't need a thing. And yet he voluntarily descends as a servant. He rides this lowly animal that, yes, in times past, was a picture of a king. But at this stage, King rode on a horse. He knows he's worthy of the the most beautiful horse ever created, and yet he rides lowly.
You'll see that compassionate condescension throughout the whole passage. The fourth one is that he's got circumstantial control. He completely knows what's happening. He understands what he wants to happen. He orchestrates what is going to happen.
There are multiple thoughts on how did this, how did he just, it's just a weird thing, right? It's not something that would happen. Nobody would come up to your house and just take your animal. It's odd, right?
So there's a couple things going on. One, it could just be a straight-up miracle. And God could do that. He could just. change somebody to just say, here, take my call.
Secondly, it could be culturally, they have this system there that doesn't it doesn't make sense to us, but where rabbis or other people in authority would be able to do something of this nature and take an animal and use it. Um Could have just been simple prior arrangements. I have no idea which one of those it was. I don't actually care all that much because I think the point is that it unfolded. The apprehension of this cult unfolded exactly the way he wanted it to.
They were told what to do, and it happened in exactly that way. Jesus has complete circumstantial control. Listen to what Ken Hughes says about this. We see here on Jesus' part What we see here on Jesus' part is careful premeditation. He was carefully coordinating everything.
The day and the hour had been selected and eternity passed. The time was precise. We must keep ever before us that on that day on the day Christ rode humbly into Jerusalem. The Jerusalem dominated by Roman pomp and splendor, he was absolutely in control. He's orchestrating everything.
So I think every time, again, every section we look at, we're going to see perspectives of King Jesus. And then I think it calls, it compels us to a response, multiple responses. But when I say compelled, I don't mean in a legalistic sort of earn your way, earn your favor to God kind of sense. I just mean a sense of privilege duty. You can't not.
participate. You can't not jump on board. You have to. You feel privileged to, you want to, you desire. And that's the kind of compelling I'm talking about.
So every time I use that today, please don't mistake that for forced compulsion. To obey God and earn his favor. No, I mean, you're just captured. You can't help. but jump on board and respond.
So let's look at what some of those responses would be in this case. First, I think that that He was persistent in his perspective, and so we persist in kingdom purposes. A proper perspective and vision. of the kingdom and what he's doing, it helps you to just keep going. You keep pursuing Jesus.
You keep after and serving and ministry and enjoyment of him. Don't give up.
So easily on the things of ministry and service that ebbs and flows. Often it takes time for fruit to develop. in your own life and in the lives of the ministry and serving you're a part of and around you. And don't assume you're fully aware of what he's doing. Uh He is always at work.
Your working assumption. And expectation is that God is doing stuff. That's what the the Christian perspective is. Can you see everything he's doing and the fruit that he's developing out of it? No, you cannot.
But he's always doing more than you might imagine, so you persist, you keep moving forward. Most of my ministry life, I became a Christian in between 18 and 19 years old. And uh Most of my time since then has been involved in a variety of capacities, volunteering, serving on staff in different ways at different times in youth ministry, 7th through 12th grade students, which is a lot of fun. I still enjoy volunteering in that capacity at different times. But one of the things that would have happened to me over the years many, many years of doing this is you would If you weren't careful early on, at least for me.
when new seventh graders would come on up into into student ministry. Mm-hmm. Your focus could get wrapped up in: okay, I gotta make sure they behave right. I gotta make sure. They don't throw pins at me while I'm praying, which has happened before, but But you can get sidetracked a little bit.
on things of that nature. And what God graciously did for me. Years ago.
So I would say my first half of youth ministry when I worked here in that capacity. was far worse than the second half because God began to birth in me a vision. An eternal perspective on how to persist.
So when seventh graders would come up, I began to get excited. about what kind of 25 year old that 13 year old would be and what God would do in their life. And it captured me and it excited me.
So, no longer did I ever look at it at any kind of negative sense of these younger kids are coming up. No, I began to be thrilled with it. Because he birthed in me this kind of perspective that he had that That you persist in kingdom purposes and you wait and you watch and you patiently see what he's going to do over time.
Now, you may have nothing to do with youth ministry. I think that's your loss. Whatever you're into as far as serving for the kingdom of God, whatever's happening in your personal life and the struggles, and you're not sure how that relates to what he's doing, you persist. Secondly, I think we eagerly were called and compelled to respond with an eager approach to him. and to other people.
So he pursues us and he does it with diligence and he does it on purpose. And he does it with an eagerness to relate to us. He's not arrogant. He's not patronizing. He wants to gently approach to meet our needs and to draw us into His story.
And so, through the power of the Holy Spirit, we can do the same. We don't have to worry about pursuing him or approaching him. Or getting everything right to do that, we can confidently draw near to him. And by extension, we can draw near to others, we can draw close to them for his purposes. But that's going to necessitate, like, It's going to require of you some humility, sometimes even some humiliation.
and sacrifice on your part. He knew his worth. We'll see that as we keep going. There's no mistaking, Jesus knew exactly who he was, he knew. what he was worthy of.
And yet he just lets himself be set upon this lowly donkey. He chose the path because he's keeping this perspective eternally in mind. Constantly. Every present moment, he's got eternity in view. And he loves you.
He loves these people that we're reading about in this text. And so he just Could you imagine? The king of the world being set on a donkey. Hee hee hee. He's just approachable.
Yeah. That's a humiliating thing.
So if you're going to follow in his footsteps, draw close to him. Draw close to others. For the glory of God, there will be times where it's going to require some sacrifice, and it's going to require what might in your mind look like humiliation. Third thing, there's a bunch, right? But I just highlighted three here.
We've got to trust them with our moments. This for me is the is a huge theme of this entire passage. They got us doing something in your current moment. But that had a pass that led up to it. And eternity speaks back into it.
And I've just been enthralled with this concept lately.
So your moments, they're never just random. He's in complete control of this moment of apprehending this cult. He's totally in control. And so therefore Our singular moments, they're never just random. This sermon I'm not saying this to put myself down, but it's largely going to be forgotten.
And if it makes you feel better, I'm going to mostly forget it too.
So don't feel bad about that. But But in reality, it's just a small fractional part of what God's doing in his overall redemptive. Arc of history and in your life and in my life. And so every moment from the most humiliating to the most difficult to the most mundane and boring to the most joyous is part of that. Listen to this quote from Packer.
illustrate it better. He says this: the same wisdom. that ordered the paths. which God saints trod in Bible times. Orders the Christian's life today.
We should not therefore be too taken aback. when unexpected and upsetting and discouraging things happen to us now. What do they mean? Simply that God and his wisdom means to make something of us which we have not. attained yet.
And he's dealing with us. accordingly.
So we trust Jesus with every moment. As a compassionate sovereign, over all the circumstances we find ourselves in. Let's move to the next section of this Palm Sunday. narrative here. If you'll look with me at verse 35, let's read together.
35 through 38.
So it says, They brought it to Jesus, they brought the colt to Jesus, and throwing their cloaks on the colt. They set Jesus on it. And as he rode along, they spread their cloaks on the road. As he was drawing near, already on the way down the Mount of Olives. the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God.
The loud voice. for all the mighty works they had seen. Verse thirty eight, and they say this, Blessed is the king. who comes in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven.
and glory and the highest.
Well Again, tons of perspectives of King Jesus. As you can see, I'm just going to show us two. The first is that he's unpretentious. His eternal perspective allows him to interact in a completely unpretentious way. He's meek, he's modest, He doesn't need to hear to appear impressive to people.
He's relatable and he's engaged. As I said earlier, he Just this picture strikes me. He's allowing himself to be helped up. On a coal. He's worthy of so much more.
praise and ceremony and pomp and and beauty. and prestige, but he just engages that moment. He's unpretentious. And there's a lot for us to learn from that. which I hope we will do in a second.
I want to share the Spurgeon quote with you. He's just kind of pointedly speaking about the unpretentious nature of Jesus. He says this: If Christ cared for this world's glory, It might soon be at his feet. If he willed to take it, who should raise a tongue against his claim? Or who should lift a finger against his might?
but he cares not for it. Take your goo-gauz elsewhere. Take your tensile hints. He wants it not. Remove your glory and your pomp, and your splendor.
He needs it not at your hands.
Now, I'll be honest with you: about 10% of the reason I shared this quote is because he uses the word googaz. I had to look it up. It means a showy, useless trinket. And I'm really kind of hoping that Gen Z will adopt this as one of their new slang words. But now that I said that, probably the No way that would happen.
Um In all seriousness, I love it, but just Spurgeon has a very pointed way, a gifted way. Uh of pointing out the obvious in a very very powerful manner.
So this makes Jesus, he's a king that can be approached. But there is kind of ways to approach him that I think these verses point out to us. He's unpretentious and able to easily be moved towards. In fact, he wants to move towards you. But I think we see something here that he is The way in which you can approach him Is one of the perspective that he has as a kind receiver of imperfect worship.
So That internal eternal perspective that he has Um He knows at this juncture right here that we're reading about today in Luke 19. that it's a mixed bag of worshipers. There are many in that crowd who just a few days later Most likely. will turn and have him crucified. There are uh Those that probably don't fully understand what's going on and yet they just worship him, maybe just with mixed motives.
Um maybe they believe he is the Messiah as he intends to be, and yet There's a mixture of motives in their heart about why they're worshiping. Uh he knows Certainly he knows one day every knee will bow. in all worship. will be directed rightly at him. He knows that.
And yet he doesn't turn this away. He receives it. He knows he's worthy of the finest purple garments that could ever be draped over that colt or laid upon the ground for his pathway towards Jerusalem. And yet he receives what they can just take off. These are poor sacrifices.
Some people couldn't even take off their cloaks. This pastor doesn't say it, the others do, so they grabbed palm branches. And he receives that. His vision of future redemption. that he is in the process of securing.
It anchors him. And so he implicitly receives this worship. That's imperfect. It's broken and he receives it kindly.
Now, in a second, when we get to the next section, we're going to see if he receives it explicitly.
So what that tells me. Is that Yeah. I look sometimes at my own life and I go, I have mixed motives in my worship. I worship him imperfectly. But he's he's a kind receiver.
of that imperfect worship.
So what does this mean for us responding? I mean, basically, you know what I there's a bunch again, but it just means worship him. You worship the king is what it means. That's the compelled response. And as I looked at that, I just tried to make some observations of what does that worship look like in this passage?
So let's walk through them. It just means one aspect of worship is that it's sincere. He's unpretentious and he's approachable, I said, right.
So you don't have to pretend. You don't have to polish everything up. You don't have to come here. Or enter into musical worship or worship in your own everyday life in all kinds of ways. acting like you have it all together.
You don't have to pretend. You can just run to him. He wants to embrace you.
So you run to him sincerely. Not flippantly, like it doesn't matter. I'm not saying that. But you don't have to be so caught up in religious ritual and ceremony. That you feel like you have to dot all your I's and cross all your T's and get just right before him.
You come to Him sincerely. You worship him sacrificially. As I mentioned, they gave what they had. the cloaks they were wearing. The palm branches they could just go grab.
So it wasn't lavish or rich. But it was sacrificial. It took effort on their part to do that. In verse 37, it says, rejoice. Yeah.
You worship him happily. It's happy worship. I was at a junior high choir concert Wednesday night for my youngest daughter. And um One of our other daughters was sitting next to me. We were watching this.
And she leaned over in my air and said, Dad, it. It looks Like it's a hostage video up there and they're tranquilized zombies under compulsion. And I thought that was a very astute observation, and it was hilarious. They did not want to be up there. Not all of them.
There were a couple girls in particular that didn't look like they were enjoying singing. But too many times that's what we're like. Uh we don't engage. And I don't just mean musical worship happily. And this is convicting for me.
I've really been thinking through how do I engage musical worship, but how do you engage any kind of worship? How do you engage your work? Or just the things you're about in your life, it's all an act of worship and sacrifice to the king. And it's meant to be happy. It's meant to be engaged in.
It's loud worship. It literally just says loud. Literally, a big tone or a big noise.
So when we worship Jesus, whether it is musically or whether it's anything you carry out in your daily life to give him honor, it's meant to be big. It's meant to have a volume to it. It's observant worship. It says, for all the mighty works they had seen. They looked.
They remembered. They credited specifically to Jesus the things they had observed him doing. Um listen. I I'll I think I'll probably say this a couple of times. What I'm calling for here in this passage, I think it calls for it at least.
Is reflecting on an eternal perspective, particularly the eternal perspectives of Jesus. And then that has.
some implications for you. But it's going to take reflection.
So if you're going to worship him rightly and be observant and see You have to actually engage that with some effort, or you won't worship in that way. That observant worship, what you see him do, what you've seen him done, what you reflect on, well, it's just going to naturally lead to gratitude. It's going to naturally lead to thankful worship.
So we're grateful in our worship. And then finally, we worship him as king. They quote, at least partially, their Psalm 118 Messianic Psalm in verse 38, where they're recognizing Jesus as King fully and truly. Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest.
As we take on these eternal perspectives of King Jesus. and really, really sit in them. More and more, we're going to want to submit to him as king. We're not going to want to rule our own lives anymore. That will become less and less.
Of a desire that we would rule our own lives. No, we'll want him. as king to rule him.
So If you have your perspective oriented rightly to eternal things, you'll look beyond the circumstances you're in currently. They could be awesome or they could be horrific. But more and more you'll look beyond them. to place that worship where it rightfully belongs. Let's look at the next section.
Verse 39. if you'll read with me in verse 40 what we're going to look at.
Some of the Pharisees and the crowd said to him. Teacher. Rebuke your disciples. He answered. I'd tell you if these were silent.
the very stones would cry out.
So let me read These two King Jesus perspectives that I see here. Together, all right? He accurately assesses his value. I said earlier, he fully is aware of who he is. And the value that he has.
And secondly, it is best for all creation. to assess that value properly as well. Whether you're a rock, A person or anything you see in creation. It would be wrong for Jesus to point it. Where else would he point?
Where else would Jesus point? to direct you your d your devotion and your worship. And you're glorying in and you're relishing of, where else would he point? It can't point to any of us. Creation is beautiful.
And it speaks to his glory. We'll see that in a verse in a second here. But where else would he point? The only right thing for Jesus to do is to point you to himself.
Now if I pointed you to myself, that would be arrogant and crazy and you should run away. But where else is he going to point? He has to point to the triune God, to himself. The infinite God, man. He's got to point that that worship is, it's the.
It's the only place that worship is worthy to be placed. And so he must make that crystal clear. And now is the time to do it. In Matthew 3, you see Jesus' baptism. His father is fully pleased, well pleased with him, right?
We know in John 17 that he and the Father are one. He knows he is worthy of worship as God. Psalm 19:1, he knows this: that the heavens declare the glory of God and the sky. above proclaims his handiwork there is no insecurity in Jesus. Which is why he can take on this humble posture so easily.
Colossians 1, the fullness of deity dwells in Jesus. He knows all this.
So I think it's good for us to notice he does not oblige the Pharisees' request. In fact, he flips it on them. He rebukes them, and at the same time he teaches the crowd about the right place. to direct worship. Is he saying that the stones would literally cry out, that they would literally develop mouths and sing worship to God?
Maybe. He's God, he certainly could. Is it a proverbial metaphor? That uh He would say this just to communicate he is really worthy of worship, maybe. Um Some people think, some commentators think it's the stones referenced in verse 44 when he speaks prophetically about the destruction of Jerusalem.
I think honestly it could have been all of them. I don't particularly know which one I w I would say, but that's really not even the point. The point he's saying is that He's worthy of worship. In us As his people that he seeks, we should outdo. any other part of creation.
they would worship him. And you guys have seen beautiful things in the world, I'm sure. We live in a beautiful place. There's beauty all around us. As much as I'm kind of ready for the snow to end, it's beautiful.
It's gorgeous. Creation does speak of his glory, but we're supposed to outdo all of it.
So how what's what can our response be? T to these Perspective that King Jesus has. I think two that I want to point out: we want to take stock of what we are worshiping. And we want to help others take stock as well. Mm-hmm.
I want to share with you John 6, because this is one of my favorite passages of Scripture. John 6, 66 through 69. He says after this Uh many uh The narrative says this, sorry. After this, many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. You guys know this passage.
So Jesus said to the twelve, Do you want to go away as well? Simon Peter had answered him. You gotta love the honesty of Peter, right? He says, Lord, to whom shall we go? What other options do we have?
Where else are we going to go? You have the words of eternal life. And we believed and come to know that you are the Holy One of God. There's only one person to worship. One person to rest in and devote your everything to.
All other devotion is they're not worth being gripped by. They're not.
So, as we rest in Christ and we enjoy that redemption that's secured by Him, you have to daily assess. Maybe minutely. Assess. What counterfeits are you worshiping? And then you lean on His power and the power of the Spirit to help you adjust.
And then as you have opportunity, you do the same with others. This is what Jesus did. It wasn't just a rebuke. You know that, right? There's a crowd.
He's teaching. One place to worship. One person to worship. It's me. He's a teacher.
He's helping others see. He's not just rebuking. Uh I was at a soccer game yesterday for one of our daughters and talking to one of the other dads. We've had a lot of small talk over the last couple of years. Nice guy, super nice guy.
Very eclectic in his beliefs on eternity, on God and things of that nature. And he asks, like, huh, is is your church growing? He knows I'm a pastor. And he's like, Yeah, I said, Yeah, we're I think we're growing, you know, steadily, slowly, but yeah. I think we're in a healthy spot.
Uh and then I I had Lots of things turning in my head. What He brought this up. Can I ask him more questions? And so I did. I just said, What do you believe about the things of God, about eternity, about where do you stand?
And he told me a little bit, and then I said, you know what, I believe that there is truth available. That it's in Christ and you can know it. And he said, you know, he was, again, super nice guy, so it was an easy conversation to have. But I did have to. made the decision.
To say, w will I help him maybe see? He doesn't believe yet. I don't know what God's going to do in his life. But will you help others see? that there's one place, one person.
to direct our worship at. Um As we move to these last two sections, you're going to see the heart of Christ. I hope in ways you've. Never really. Or, at least, you're reminded anew of how deep his love is.
So, let's do that. But he's gripped. with eternal perspectives. And it impacts what he does in his present. And certainly it impacts His heart for us right now as well.
Verse 41, just one verse. It says and when he drew near Remember, he's approaching to want. to join. He's approaching for eternal purpose. when he drew near.
He saw the city. And he wept over it. Martin Louis Jones, great Scottish preacher, says this is one of the most moving scenes in all of Scripture.
So the perspectives I would point out to us are Are up there, right? And we'll work through them one at a time. You guys remember in Luke 2 He's uh at the temple, at Jerusalem. He gets left by his parents, right? Uh which is a fun story, but He he reminds us then as a boy.
He's about his father's business. The original language doesn't use the word business. It just says he's about his father. He knows from early on. He knows what he's supposed to be about.
And that perspective, it carries with him all the way through his earthly life. on into eternity. It carries with him so much so that it even affects what does he physically see? And how does he see it? And how does that physical vision Transfer to a bigger eternal vision.
The word for see there means to stare at, to discern, or to behold. It's not just a casual glance at the city and then crying. No, he's precisely seeing. He's a precise observer. He knows what's happening currently.
And that precision for the current moment, for him to see things, it doesn't just stay there, it's panoramic eternally. He's able to look at circumstances Past, present, future and sees it and he acts accordingly. In all of that. It it makes him currently compassionate. compassionate.
Uh you guys ever Yeah You see a movie that maybe you've seen it. thousands of times. And maybe there's some things you appreciate about it, but part of you is a little bit complacent towards it. Because you've seen it so many times you know how it's gonna end. Jesus knows how this stuff's ending, and he's not complacent.
It actually increases his compassion.
So it enhances it. Verse 41, it's not just a tear rolling down. It's a loud, sobbing lament. He's gripped By these moments and its impact on people, and what it means for the Father's plan for redemption. I don't think.
And I read a lot of cool stuff, a lot of really smart people who articulated the emotion of Jesus really well. But I think it's really it's really hard to articulate it properly. The compassion that he has and he demonstrates and that he wants to extend. But Spurgeon is the best as we can do right now, and he says this. The great sorrow of Jesus's it reveals to us the nature of our Lord.
How complex is the person of Christ? He foresaw that the city would be destroyed. and though he was divine, he wept. He knew every single event and detail of the dreadful tragedy and used words about it of special historical accuracy, which you'll see in just a second. Which brings out his prophetic character, and yet the eye so clear in seeing the future.
I was almost blinded. with tears.
So, I think there's a couple ways we can. we're compelled to respond to this. Probably a bunch, but at least two that I want to point out. We got to minimize distractions. in order to see others.
So in verse 41 it says, He drew near and he saw. He stared at, he beheld. He discerned. Um You're gonna have to Ask God to help you reflect. and minimize some distractions.
I um I I I love I'm going to show my dadness here, but I love these YouTubers called DudePerfect. And I watch them a bit, and lately they've been recommending some other people to watch.
Now, you can criticize the fact that I watch YouTube, which is probably worthwhile, maybe. There's one I was watching recently. And what he's doing, and typically what I like is basically amounts to like junior, higher, high school. challenge videos is what it turns out to be. And so I'm watching this one guy, and he's putting on this talent show basically.
He's going to pay the winner of this little talent show competition $10,000. And the video is like Ten to fifteen minutes, right? Most of these short attention spans is speaking into what I'm getting at here actually in a second, but. They're not long videos. Mm-hmm.
And he's watching these auditions. This is sort of the the star of this YouTube channel. And he says Kinda off the cuff, I I got TikTok brain. I can't I'm bored. I cannot focus on a one-minute audition of a contest I'm putting on.
Um And it's just illustrative of where our culture is. You may have nothing to do with YouTube. That's probably a good thing. Perhaps. Maybe that's my first step, is to watch less of it.
Um I'm not interested in necessarily communicating a prescription for you. But what I am interested in pointing out is that our Culture. Which we're all guilty of, including myself, in ways. We have a distraction problem. We're quick to dull ourselves.
You see this any stop light you're at. What's footer people doing? which is not safe for driving, but Uh we're distracted easily and and even if it's not on on your uh electronic devices. There are all kinds of things competing for our attention. And so We're going to have to invest sacrificially in some mental and emotional energy.
So that we can actually see other people.
So we can lift our eyes up and look out. You guys know every Single Sunday in this place. There are people in that lobby out there that that need encouragement. They need a voice. The needy rubber And me, me, I'm preaching to myself too.
Don't don't don't And I'm preaching at you, to say I I don't need to think about what's next later on today. or this week. I need to see them and then move towards them.
so that I can see what's going on.
So maybe your first step, like mine, might be watch less YouTube. I don't know what it is. But I will ask you, what about you? Like, what are you going to do to minimize the distraction so that you can have the perspective of King Jesus and then look and see what else is going on in people's lives? As you do that, what you're going to find Is that more and more like Jesus, you're going to be moved towards a compassion that's very current?
Um And the other response is that it's very felt, it's very real. Listen. There was no one busier than Jesus. No one more betrayed than Jesus. No one facing more pending danger or safety issues.
or potential anxiety than Jesus. No one. And what does he do? He weeps over those. that are going to reject.
He sobs. Over those people who will not receive him.
So our response is we have to be compelled. To look for those same gospel opportunities and opportunities to showfelt compassion. with people. On Thursday this week. Uh We we typically At the church here, either someone will walk in the doors.
during the week or they'll call. Probably every every six to eight weeks. And they'll be asking for help of some kind. And I'll be honest with you, they're There are several times where that is some sort of scam. It's some sort of like ploy to get us to do something.
Um So I was uh Sydney took a call of that on Thursday. And then I was like, she came to me and and I She's like, she wants some money for for some help with the hotel room. And I was like, okay. Is Rob here? Because I'm trying to work on this.
And Rob graciously took the call, prayed with this woman, shepherded her, encouraged her. and came back to me because he's like, what do we do? She's asking for this kind of help, and we're trying to discern: is this legitimate? I don't know. And so what I ended up doing is going, all right, Lord, here I am.
I'm looking at Jesus weeping, having compassion for people. In my heart, I just want to move on. And thankfully, he convicted me. He's like, no, you don't get to just move on. You don't get to preach about compassion from Jesus and not pay attention to this woman.
And so I spent the next hour or so on emails, texts, phone calls. Sydney was helping out as well. It was a real team effort to try to be honest and caring with this woman and not just write her off. We did at the end of that time. Find a way to help her.
And praise God for that. But uh this I'm here I am. I'm studying the God's word and I get the difficulty and the challenges of the lives you face. I live it too. Or you're busy.
Where you get your mind off the eternal. And we want to just be able to engage with more felt compassion.
So I The next time you face a moment where you're like, you're Your tension's elsewhere. Ask God to help you have that eternal perspective and really see.
Now There may be times you can't, that's okay, but I'm I'm I'm just Sort of my call to myself and to us is God help us. Not become cynical, not move towards where we don't want to engage with some felt compassion like our Savior did. If you'll bear with me, I got one more spurgeon for you here, okay? Maybe two actually, I don't know. But anyway.
Mm-hmm. I think one. I love again, he's pointed. And he helps you see things really well, so that's why I'm sharing it with you. He says, brothers and sisters.
If we would have others come to Jesus, we must be like Jesus in tenderness. We must be meek, lowly, gentle, and sympathetic. Never let us speak of the doom of the wicked harshly, flippantly, or without holy grief. The loss of heaven and the endurance of hell must always be themes for tears. that men should live without Christ Is grief enough?
But that they should die without Christ? It's an overwhelming horror. This is the line they got me. We should grind our hearts to powder before God. and make us fall on our faces and cry.
I uh I came the first time ever I'm from Texas originally. The first time I ever came to Utah was in 2004. Pastor Brian and Jennifer were just in the initial stage of starting the church, and we, with some mutual friends from Texas, came out to visit them. We had all come from the same church. uh prior to them coming here and we just wanted to visit them just a Quick, short trip, didn't see much of Utah at all, didn't do any of the tourist stuff or the mountains really even.
We just hung out with them. But the first time I spent extended time here was with that same church that we all came from. In 2006, the youth ministry there did a mission trip. Here to help. The church had started at that point.
We were helping them do some advertising and some neighborhood flyers and different work projects around the facility they had and Bible clubs in the neighborhood. It was an awesome trip, a lot of fun. Youth pastor was the guy who took over Brian's position actually at that church. Ended up being one of my best friends, tremendous mentor, great guy named Will Davis. He pastors and San Antonio or now.
One of the most fun things about youth ministry is the unplanned times, the times when you're not doing the formal activities or events. On trips of that nature.
So we went back. Bill and Tammy McKeever actually hosted the boys of that youth ministry for that trip. And it's one evening we're sitting around some of the guys and they're just being goofy and like high school guys do. And Will was there and I was there, and we were just listening to them talk, and we were going to pray for our activities that we had gone through that day, and then what's coming the next day. And these these high school boys began flippantly making fun of of some some of the religious stereotypes of this state.
And What you need to know about Will Davis is he's one of the nicest. To this day, he's one of the most gentle men I've ever met in my life. Good athlete, he's a marathon runner, great guy. Never heard him get stern with anyone in the six years I worked with him. And he looks at these boys.
And he rebukes them. Not yelling. He's just I know some yell. I don't think he knows how to yell. But he rebukes them.
Sternly. And he weeps. He's like, these are people we're called to love. We we may not agree with them on on the issues of theology and truth. But it it ground his heart into powder.
And those boys, I tell you what, they didn't make fun of them again. They didn't not one more time, and nor should we ever. It's just and I tell you that story because Yeah. It illustrates the kind of heart that we need to live with. Whether we agree with someone theologically or not, we need to tell them the truth.
The gospel is worth that. It's worth being honest about. He's we're about to move as we finish here. He's very honest about justice. And about the need to accept the free gift of salvation bought and paid for in Christ and in Christ alone.
He's very honest about that. but his heart is ground to powder. As should ours be.
So Let's look at our last section. Verses 42 through 44, if you'll read with me. Would that you Even you. had known on this day the things that make for peace. But now that they are hidden from your eyes, But now they are hidden from your eyes.
Verse 43, For the days will come. They'll come upon you. When your enemies I'll set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side. and tear you down to the ground. You and your children within you.
And they will not leave one stone. upon another in you. Because you did not know. the time of your visitation or The time it's actually kind of one of the words that you get bishop from, it's the the time for your overseeing. I've overseen you.
And you haven't responded to me. Justice is coming is what he's saying. Perspectives here. This is a formal lament he's offering up to God, is what that is. We've seen his heart.
is emotion.
Now he's verbalizing it. He laments the rejection of Reconciliation. He wants an experiential relationship. He sees the future with precision, and he's a patient judge.
So. Yeah. When it says the word known, that you would have known. They did know intellectually. Throughout the Gospels, you can see that he made clear who he was and what he was coming to do.
Luke 13, Luke 17, there are many other accounts of this. It wasn't that they didn't know, it was that they were rejecting the terms of peace he was calling for to enter into experiential relationship with him. based on his work. Luke 13, he wants to gather them. Like a hen gathers her brood.
He cares. It wasn't that they didn't know, the hiddenness was their own doing. Their own suppression of truth and blinding themselves. As Romans 1 illustrates, if you want to read that, this is what is happening with them. That's the hiddenness.
So he longs for that relationship with them. The final two verses. Which is number three on his perspectives up there. He sees the future with precision. I read.
or watched lots of people to to try to dig into this. It's pretty clear that he was describing with pretty decent clarity the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. and the judgment and justice of God upon them for his rejection. And he just sees it clearly. And you can read about that.
Again, Pastor Brian's message talks a lot about that and the the precision of history and that. But he sees it just another illustration of how he sees with eternal perspectives that we can implement in our lives, I think, as well. And so You see his heart. He longs to extend grace and enter into relationship with you. And I say, when I say you, I mean you.
That's what he longs for. It's not just this crowd. It's you too. And yet he's not, he's going to be very clear. God is a just God.
And since if not dealt with on the cross. It it you will have to deal with it.
So he's clear on that. The beauty is he's still calling us.
So wh what are some responses? that we should enter into is He's the one, true, perfect king. I think we've seen that. He's compassionate beyond our comprehension. The only logical response is to submit to him.
Look for ways every day in your life to submit to the authority of Jesus. And then you pursue. experiential relationship with him. We have no interest here in you praying a prayer to receive Christ and then have nothing to do with him. It's not what the New Testament really calls us to.
He knows all about you. He knows your sin. Executed in extremes, he knows the extremes of the sin in your heart and the darkness that resides there at times, and he still sobs over you. One of the beauty of Beauties of studying a passage like this, and you're just as capable of doing this as I am, is you start to sit. and the heart of Jesus a little bit.
And so pursue that. He's a God and he's a king worth running after. Um He's worth being gripped by. There's no other thing. to be gripped by, no other person to be gripped by than him.
So If you don't know him? Today's the day. Today's the day to come. and meet him and engage that relationship for the first time. Anyone here, just go talk to anyone.
Say, I need to know Jesus, and we'll help you. We will. We'd love to do that. I think for a lot of us though, maybe you'd Do know him. And yet you're a little stagnant, you're going through the motions.
There's always more sweet relationship to dive into with Jesus. Always. Am I tempted to be stagnant and go for the motions? Of course I am. I'm no different.
I'm no better than anyone. But you gotta fight that. Because there's more relationship with the Eternal King that he wants to dive into with you. These last two responses. We have to look beyond our current moments.
And participate. As you do that, you'll participate in his redemption story, the big. Overarching the story of redemption. Again, I've said this a couple of times, but one of the things that has just fascinated me with this passage isn't the kingship aspect, which is certainly there and important. But It's this eternal perspective that Jesus always carries with him as he lived his earthly life, as he certainly has with him now.
Um As we're gripped and captured by those eternal perspectives, Um We'll be able to carry them through every moment of our life. In the boring times. In the times of failure. You ever failed at anything and have it break you? I have.
Confusing times, tragic times, times when you're selfish and you know it. Times when you're distracted. The perspectives of King Jesus, they'll push you forward. I've been reading this book. I wanted to finish it.
But I didn't. I'm a slow reader. I only got halfway through it, but it's called it's by James K. A. Smith.
It's called How to Inhabit Time. And I loved reading it because it just, I think it really matched well with a lot of this section of scripture. The subtitle is Understanding the Past, Facing the Future. And living faithfully now. And I want to share with with you.
It's it's it was over a page and a half, so I I condensed it a little bit, but it says this. Remember you are temporal. Keep your history daily before you. Remember there's a future after the sand runs out. And that future is already bleeding into your present.
The God who appears in the fullness of time. catches all that's been thrown our way in an embrace that launches us into a future. That could only be ours because only we have lived this life that Christ redeems. Grace lives off the truth of God's wonderworking mercy. my past, my story.
is taken up into God. and God's story. Yeah. So the thing uh I'll just close with this. And it's just a question based off the video we watched towards the beginning of the sermon.
Are you gripped by eternal things? Are you gripped by eternal things? The answer that you give to that question. will go a long way in helping you process your past. The moment you're currently in.
and what the future brings. and how you can then leverage that. For the glory of God. For the gospel good of other people, and for your own sweet comfort and relationship with Him.
So maybe if you think uh Am I gripped by eternal things?
Well, if you're anything like me, Maybe gripped by the goo gaws, as uh Spurgeon said. The trivial meaningless things.
Well, there's good news for all of us that, as Martin Lillie-Jones says, the day of grace has not ended. When he he makes that prophetic pronouncement of justice, What is it also? It's a call to grace. It's a call to respond. The same call exists for us today, for today.
So, if you find yourself gripped by those gugas, as Spurgeon said. Uh That's okay. The time to embrace Christ for the first time, the time to turn that over to Him and grow more in depth in Him and more in relationship with Him, that time is now. That time is still here. Um All you gotta do is go to the Compassionate King.
And he'll receive you. He will. Let's pray. Oh, Lord. Our spectacular triune God with perfect perspective, thank you for our short time in your word this Palm Sunday.
We pray that perhaps as a result of our time today, you'll give us heart script by you. and precious eternal priorities.
So we can find ourselves more and more. That we're embracing each moment for you and your redemptive purposes in all the challenges and joys we face. We ask that you help us to have a worshipful week reflecting well. on our Savior's death and resurrection. Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord.
Peace in heaven. And glory in the highest. Amen.
