Experience TRUTH - #15

This is Andy Thomas from the Masculine Journey Podcast where we discover what it means to be a wholehearted man. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just seconds. Enjoy it, share it, but most of all, thank you for listening and for choosing the Truth Podcast Network.

This is the Truth Network. The triumphal entry of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem. The Pharisees are mad. The crowd is elated. Here comes the King riding on his colt into the city of Jerusalem.

Luke chapter 19. I'm Stu Epperson. With me is Robbie Dilmore, the Christian car guy.

This is Experience Truth. We often have the blessing of having a special guest contributor. We've had all kinds of folks sit in that seat. Sometimes we're recording another show. I'm interviewing someone. I interviewed a Christian congressman recently, and there's a podcast out on that. But I'll be interviewing someone, Robbie, and I'll say, hey, by the way, we need to wrap up our study in Luke. I need to go ahead and record Experience Truth.

You mind joining? They say, oh, sure, you know. They don't know what they're getting into, do they? But the Word of God is so powerful. There's a small group that meets at a restaurant in North Carolina called The Dario.

They've got about seven locations, and every week at 8 a.m. all locations have Wednesday in the Word. It's a bunch of men messed up like me that go through the Bible together, and we are in the Book of Luke. This is part and parcel of what we are going through and the questions on a handout, but it takes us right through the Word of God. I encourage you to get in a church that teaches the Word of God and that feeds you weekly.

Are you starved? Find a church with the man of God that exposits the Scripture. It's based on that, this biblical discipleship and all that good stuff. Robbie, let's read the passage, set it all up, and then we're going to tackle the final couple questions here. This is part three.

Can you believe it? The triumph will enter your Christ. So much is in there, but let's go right into it. Luke 19, 28 through 40. So when he said this, he went up on ahead of them, going to Jerusalem, and it came to pass, when he drew near to Bethphage and Bethany at the mount called Olivet, that he sent two of his disciples saying, go into the village opposite you, and when you enter, you will find a colt tied on which no one has ever sat.

Loose it, bring it here, and if anyone asks you, why are you loosing it, thus you shall say to him, because the Lord has need of it. So those who were sent went their way and found it just as he said to them. But as they were loosing the colt, the owner of it said to them, why are you loosing the colt? And they said, the Lord has need of him. Then they brought him to Jesus and they threw their own clothes on the colt, and they set Jesus on him. And as he went, many spread their clothes on the road. Then as he was now drawing near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works they had seen, saying, blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord, peace in heaven and glory in the highest. And some of the Pharisees called him from the crowd, teacher, rebuke your disciples. But he answered them and said to them, I tell you that if you should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out. Well, Robbie, I asked this second to the last question here.

I want to tackle these last two. There's a lot of rich stuff in here. Why did Jesus receive their praise and not rebuke them? And one of the great statements, and I try to share this with my Jehovah's Witness friends, my Mormon friends who deny the deity of Christ. They say he was just another man, you know, that was a special man, but he was created. He was not created. He is the Creator. He's the Son of God. He's God the Son.

And right here is why. Because Jesus Christ is God, only God receives worship from others. In the book of Acts, when they were trying to worship Paul and Barnabas, Paul and Silas, in the book of John when the angels were there, and when the Apostle John later on in Revelation tried to fall down and worship the angels, the same statement, do not worship me, worship God.

And here are these people and throwing their clothes on the ground. You know, the disciples putting their clothes on their prayer cloths, really, on the donkey, for Christ to write on this unwritten colt, this animal of peace that he wrote in Jerusalem, unwritten and unbroken. And then the people to cry out these words of praise to him, blessed is he, blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest, you know, peace on earth, glory to God, all these things.

They are praising Almighty God. Jesus Christ is God. He is Everlasting Father. He is Prince of Peace. Isaiah chapter 9. He is the perfect Lamb of God, the spotless Lamb of God, the second member of the Trinity. To receive praise is to admit and acknowledge that he is God himself. And it's a powerful statement.

The Pharisees were not happy because they asked Jesus, rebuke your disciples, rebuke these people. How dare they? And look at this statement. Look at this statement, Robbie. Oh, it's phenomenal. He answered and said, what in the world?

What in the world? He says... Now, let's go back before you to the statement. Remember when King David was dancing? Right. You know, Jesus is in the lineage. He has the bloodline of David, right? Oh, yeah. When King David was dancing before the Lord, who rebuked him? Michael, his wife. Remember that?

Oh, of course. She's got some hot water. So, just like she was upset with David and the King for dancing, so the Pharisees are upset with the Son of David, Jesus, the Christ, for receiving this praise that is only deserving of God Almighty. Okay, so they're really wrestling. They're afraid to rebuke the crowd themselves. They asked Jesus to. They did not recognize Jesus as God or Messiah, so they were offended at this what would be considered rank blasphemy. They would exact their revenge soon and they would, in the coming days, incite hate and murder toward Jesus in another crowd, just a few days from this very moment, right?

So, the time is coming where Christ will die and they will use all of this praise heaped upon Jesus as evidence to hurl hate, insults, and charges of blasphemy among Christ to call for his crucifixion. So, Jesus says, first, he says, I tell you. So, he answers, says, I tell you. This is a statement that has some punctuation to emphasize what he's about to say. He says, I tell you that if these should keep silent. So, if there isn't this loud choral of praise from all these disciples and these kids and everyone else, the stones would immediately cry out.

So, you have a statement of just such power. If the objects created with vocal cords aren't going to praise me, then the inanimate objects, rocks, stones, trees. When you read Psalm 19, it says, the heavens declare the glory of God. When you read Isaiah 55, it talks about, we will go out with joy.

The mountains and the hills will break forth in singing. There's language all throughout. In Habakkuk 2-11, there's language all throughout the Old Testament.

Right, and there's a really cool thing that you might remember, Abel's blood cried out. And that word cry in Hebrew has this kuff right in the middle, which is the letter of holiness. It's the word that starts out kadosh, that means holy. And so, crying, if you think about it, it's really special to God.

Really, really, really special because it's holy, is crying. And so, for him to say the rocks are going to cry, this is a holy thing. And believe me, those Pharisees knew exactly what he said. Like, oh, he did not say that. I mean, you didn't go there, did you?

So he's saying, I'm not only Lord of my creatures that are praising me, I'm Lord of my creation. The rocks, and by the way, rocks were everywhere in Jerusalem. Rocks were all over the place.

You couldn't go there today. Oh yeah. You know, and go to the rocks. I remember Chuck Swindoll telling this story one time at an army religious broadcasters convention. He said he was with this group, and it's a spiritual moment. He said they were at the point where they were at the exact place where David killed Goliath.

They were at the exact place where David would have been with his sling, right before he hurled that sling and hit Goliath in the temple and took his head off. And so Chuck Swindoll, he's got this teaching moment. He's so excited. He squats down, he bends over, picks up a pebble, maybe the size of one of the rocks. He says to the group, this could have been one of the rocks right here that could have been just like the one David used.

Maybe this is one. Rocks last a long time. He's making this powerful point, right? So as they're walking away, he bumps into a guy who works there in construction, and he says, man, isn't that remarkable? And the guy says, yeah, we just brought this load in from Tel Aviv last week.

So he shot his whole thing. But the rocks, the stones, all over that area. I heard a Christian band once sing a song. I'll never forget the words.

And I always wondered what they meant until I read this passage. The words were, somebody's going to praise his name. Somebody's going to call him Lord. It'll either be you or me, or it's going to be the rocks and the trees. And so what a great statement of Christ's deity and about He will command worship, every knee will bow, and even all creation sings His praises, Robbie.

What a great statement. So Robbie, as we wrap up, give these final questions, and we do got to put a bow on this thing. How central to my life is the worship of Jesus? How does my worship reflect my heart's passion? And how has His peace triumphed in my heart? So we think of the triumphal entry, where he comes and literally offers himself. He's offering his peace. He's riding a beast of peace, a donkey, because a king that would be coming to conquer would be on a steed, a war horse.

Here at Jesus, the Prince of Peace is riding a beast of peace into the city of peace, Jerusalem. He came unto his own, his own received him not. But to as many as received him, to them gave you the right to become the sons of God. You listening out there right now, this is your opportunity, because he's offering himself today. He died on that cross.

He rose from the dead. And the offer of salvation, we can say on this program right here, right now, for everyone to hear, Jesus Christ is Lord, and he offers you to become a child. He's offering you to be born again. It says as many as received him, he's offering you to receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior.

The offer's open. We can say God loves you. Jesus died for you. So when you have that blood that he shed there on that cross, based on what happened, then you, like the woman caught in adultery, can say, because if Jesus is truly there, he'll say to you, where are your accusers? Because if you're under his blood, you have no accusers. I mean, you have peace, because nobody can accuse you because Jesus is right here.

He's got me covered. And that's what Islam, Hinduism, no other religion in the world can take care of your sin. It's all about you earning it, and hopefully God forgives you. Hopefully God lets you in. Hopefully you get in there. Well, guess what?

There is no earning it. You're either guilty or you're innocent. And we're all sinners. We all fall short of God's glory. So this is the offer. Now, let me tell you some bad news.

This is very sobering. There will be another triumphal entry of Jesus, and it will be from the Mount of Olives, except this time it won't be as a sacrifice for sin on a young donkey, but it will be as a conquering king on a great white horse. When he returns, we will not be on the radio saying, hey, God loves you. Hey, receive him. No, there will be no more offer of salvation. You will be thrown into hell to burn forever, to be tortured forever, for your sin to pay the great penalty of your sin. So either you receive his gift now, which is poured out in love.

Look what he did. He died on the cross. He sacrificed it all for you and for me.

I didn't deserve it, right? Either receive it now and bow your knee or you will be forced to bow your knee, but there will be no mercy. There's a day where there will be no mercy, Robbie, and that's heartbreaking, and that should challenge all of us. If you don't know Christ, call upon him today.

This could be your last day on the planet. If you do know him, who are you spreading the good news of his amazing mercy and peace that's offering? The window's open right now a little bit, but when that door shuts and the wrath of God comes and Jesus Christ comes back a second time, it won't be his little baby and lamb. It won't be as a humble servant on a donkey coming in and offering himself, opening his arms to everyone. It will be as a ruling, reigning king, and that day is coming. If you don't know him, trust him now, right, Robbie?

Absolutely. He is the king. He's the king and he's coming and we're so excited about that. The next great event in history, by the way, is the return of the king. Are you ready for that return? Thanks for being with us on Experience Truth. The triumphal entry next week, Christ really stirs it up. Oh my, he's going to start shaking it up. He's going to teach some of those richest teaching moments come in the next portions of Luke, and we're going to get to that next time right here on Experience Truth.