Jesus enters Jerusalem as King
[0:00] Welcome everybody to this pre-recorded service for the 28th of March 2021, Palm Sunday.
[0:13] ! This is being recorded for Calvary Church in Brighton, an independent Bible-teaching Baptist! with a congregation back in normal times, as it were 70 to 80 people, based here on the south coast of England.
[0:25] You can also find something for kids on this channel, for the Calvary kids, and I recommend to you the five Easter questions, which are suitable for newcomers, people interested in the Christian faith. The questions being, what is Christian faith?
[0:43] Easter fact, is it believable? Easter hope, is it good? Jesus and faith, is it necessary? Jesus faith and Easter, how does it all work? And I recommend those to you if you're interested in finding out about Christian faith, perhaps for the first time, and they're available on this channel.
[1:02] This morning is our Palm Sunday service. We're thinking about the events of Easter, that first time when Jesus entered Jerusalem, leading up to the events of his crucifixion and then of his resurrection.
[1:14] So it's a great time, great events to be thinking about. This is the time when he got near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, and the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they'd seen.
[1:33] Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord. Following that prophecy in Zechariah, which says, Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion, shout, daughter of Jerusalem, see your King comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
[1:57] So there is the prophecy telling us to rejoice, and here is the fulfilment of it. And let's pray, and then we'll sing. Lord, help us this morning to capture something of the abounding joy that was right and appropriate on that day when the King came to his city all those years ago in that particular form, and help us to have in our hearts something of the joy that there will be when the King finally comes in fullness and in universal reign and in greater claim.
[2:36] So we even now lift our hearts to Jesus Christ. Please be with us in this time. Amen. All glory, praise and honour to you, Redeemer King.
[2:49] The children sang Hosanna. They made sweet Hosanna's ring. You are the King of Israel. You are David's royal son. Now in the Lord's name coming, his own anointed one.
[3:01] A song originally accredited to Theodulf of Orleans 750 to 821, but we can sing it now. All glory, praise and honour.
[3:11] O glory, praise and honour to you, Redeemer King, to whom the lips of children.
[3:39] May sweet Hosanna's ring. You are the King of Israel, faith David's royal son.
[3:55] Now in the Lord's name coming, his own anointed one. O glory, praise and honour to you, Redeemer King, to whom the lips of children made sweet Hosanna's ring.
[4:27] The company of angels are praising you on high, and we with all creation together make it high.
[4:47] O glory, praise and honour to you, Redeemer King, to whom the lips of children made sweet Hosanna's ring.
[5:08] The people of the Hebrews with arms before you went, of praise and prayer and thoughts before you we present.
[5:30] O glory, praise and honour to you, Redeemer King, to whom the lips of children made sweet Hosanna's ring.
[5:50] To you before your passion they sang their hymns of praise, to you, now high exalted, our melody he raised.
[6:11] O glory, praise and honour to you, Redeemer King, to whom the lips of children made sweet Hosanna's ring.
[6:31] To whom the lips of children made sweet Hosanna's ring. As you receive their praises, accept the prayers we pray.
[6:42] In every good delighting, our good and gracious King, for glory, praise and honour to you, Redeemer King, to whom the lips of children make sweet Hosanna's ring.
[7:21] Now let's come to pray. We come before you, Almighty God, through Jesus Christ, your Son, in the power of the Holy Spirit.
[7:34] We come to lift our hearts to you, we come to be elevated into the place of heaven where you are, Lord Jesus, seated at the right hand of the Majesty on high.
[7:47] We come to think the thoughts that are appropriate for heaven about the greatness of God, the grandeur of his holiness, the almightiness of his power, the depth of his wisdom, and the goodness, the deep, deep goodness of his character.
[8:02] And we come in worship. we ask that we might be conscious of our sins which we confess before you. How could we approach you unless our sins are forgiven?
[8:15] And help us, having been forgiven many sins, to love you much and to have our hearts totally taken up with you. Forgive us, Lord, for the idols in our lives that we make to be the big things that we rely on, that we draw our strength and comfort from, instead of you.
[8:34] And wean us off those things, Lord, and help us to find our strength in you, the living God, and to find our purpose in the purposes of God, to find our hope in the promises of God, to find our strength in the grace of God.
[8:50] Please bless our nation at this time, and we pray that we would be learning the lessons of this pandemic, rather than letting them harden us to the things of God.
[9:03] We pray that many men and women and boys and girls will be awakened to their need of God and the reality of the presence of God and the need to find relationship with you and to have sins forgiven and guilt removed.
[9:18] Please bless the five Easter questions that we were mentioning and all the publicity that has gone alongside with them. Please bless all those who are sort of interested, dipping their toes in the water, water, at this time, and please bless your people who need you and who need to be replenished from you and strengthened to serve you.
[9:40] So we pray that you would be our God and that we would be your people, and we commit this time to you with thanksgiving and praise. Amen.
[9:52] And now we're going to go over to have a children's slot. I think some bloke's going to present it with a couple of assistants. So this is available separately but here's the children's slot to the Calvary kids.
[10:06] There we go. Right, well this is hello to the kids today, isn't it? Yeah, hello kids, hello kids. Anybody you want to particularly say hello to? You want to say hello to Gracie, do you?
[10:18] Hello Gracie. And anybody you want to say hello to? You want to say hello to Corinne? Why do you want to say hello to Corinne? Because she's a lamb.
[10:29] Yeah, we've been through all this before, haven't we? Anyway, we've got something special today, haven't we? And I think it's you're going to go first, aren't you Ludwig? Yeah. Whoops, something just dropped on the floor.
[10:43] What did you want to show me? That picture. Yeah, who's that then? It's Siegfried, your friend. Yeah. And you saw him? Yes. And you learnt something.
[10:55] Okay. And I've got one. What? I've got one now. Okay, you've got one. Well, let's find out about that in a minute. Okay, so I think you're going to lead us off on this, aren't you Covey?
[11:05] Right, so what have you got? You want me to have a pierced ear. You want me to have a pierced ear. Okay, and you've got something to help me, which is this.
[11:18] So what do you want me to do with this? It looks like a little screwdriver. You want me to I'm not going to do that. Stick it through my ear. No, I don't want to do that. Other people have got pierced ears.
[11:34] Nami Maria's got a pierced ear. Yeah? Who? Lamica. She's not called Lamica. She's called Annica. Oh, she's got a pierced ear.
[11:46] Yeah, but I don't want to have a pierced ear. What else have you got? That. Okay, that looks very... What do you want me to do with that? Stick it in my ear.
[11:57] No, I don't really want to do that. Okay, you've got something else. You've got this. Right, what do you want me to do with that? Make a hole in my ear with it.
[12:08] I don't really want to make a hole in my ear with any of those things. Why would I want to make a hole in my ear? Because it's like Ludwig. Okay, let's have a look at Ludwig.
[12:19] What have you got in your ear? Just show everybody. Let's put it up to the camera. You've got a little label there with some numbers and your name on it. Okay, so where did you get that from?
[12:33] The shepherd who loves you. Okay, so he knows the numbers. What do the numbers mean? Your birthday.
[12:43] Okay, so the shepherd knows your birthday. And he knows your name. Okay, so he's put it on there. His birthday, 20th of May, 2020, and his name, Ludwig.
[13:00] Okay, so the shepherd knows you and loves you and has put that tag on your ear to show that he knows you and loves you. And Siegfried's got one like it.
[13:12] Okay. And you want me to have one like it. Okay, and what you're telling me you've made one. Right, so this is a tag.
[13:24] I'll show you boys and girls what it says on it. What does it say? It says my birthday. Yeah. It says my name.
[13:35] Yeah. And you've done it because you love me. Oh, well, that's very nice. I can't really read that writing. That's because you can't read or write.
[13:46] Okay, well, right, so here's the tag, which you've made, and you want me to drill a hole in my ear and stick that through my ear.
[13:57] And the point of it is what? Because you know me and love me. Well, I feel a little bit hard-hearted not drilling a hole in my ear, but I don't really want to drill a hole in my ear.
[14:08] I'm going to hang it on my ear. What about that? Will that do if I just hang that on my ear like that? Is that okay? No? I'm afraid that's all it's going to be.
[14:24] It's okay, is it? I don't seem very convinced. That's all I'm going to do. So he's got a tag in his ear, I've got a tag in my ear, because somebody knows me and loves me and knows my name.
[14:39] And in this case it's Covey who's given me that tag. But the good shepherd gives a tag like that to his sheep, and I've got a picture here. Whoops, here we go.
[14:53] And it's a quote from John's Gospel where it says about Jesus, he knows, he calls his own sheep by name, so he knows their names. And Jesus says, I am the good shepherd, I know my sheep, and my sheep know me.
[15:08] Whoops, somebody's fallen over. And it also says that the good shepherd loves his sheep, not like the hired hand. Yes. So he knows and loves and knows the name of his sheep.
[15:21] It doesn't actually say he gives them a tag, but I suppose that's the idea of the tag. And there's a close-up of the tag. The good shepherd loves his sheep, not like the hired hand. So that reminds us about the way Jesus is the good shepherd to his people.
[15:36] And thank you very much for the tag for me. Oh, I'm glad I'm welcome. Thank you very much. Oh, nice little kiss from you. So boys and girls, I wonder if you'd like to make a tag for somebody you know and love.
[15:52] I'm sure you can write a bit better than this, and put their name and birthday, and you love them. And you don't have to stick it through their ear, but maybe they would put it on their ear like that.
[16:03] And it reminds us, it's meant to remind us, that Jesus knows his sheep. He knows them by name. He knows them individually. And he loves them and died for them.
[16:16] Let's pray. Thank you, Lord, for this wonderful way in which the Saviour of the world knows individual people, knows them by name, calls them, loves them, and died for them.
[16:30] May each one of us be found in the end to be one of his sheep, listening to his voice and following him. Amen. Okay, finished?
[16:42] Yeah? Thank you very much for my tag. Do you want to say goodbye to everybody? Okay, okay, okay, yeah, yeah, okay. Bye-bye. And we've got a song from Anya and Lily and Daniel. They're going to sing us a song just now to finish the kids' slot.
[16:56] Bye-bye, kids. Bye. Bye.ยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยย It's a break in the same line You came from heaven to earth To show the rain From the earth to the cross My death to face From the cross to the grave From the grave to the sky Oh, the lint your name of God
[17:58] The lint your name of God And love is in your face But the earth is in my eyes So let me be to say goodbye You came from heaven to earth To show the rain From the earth to the cross My death to face From the cross to the grave From the grave to the sky From the grave to the sky From the grave to the sky From the grave to the sky From the grave to the sky
[19:00] My death to face From the grave to the sky From the grave to the sky From the grave to the sky From the grave to the sky From the grave to the sky Okay, well, none the worse for wear Let's continue by hearing God's word And Christopher is going to read to us Luke 19 from verses 28 to 44 About the triumphal entry of Jesus On Palm Sunday After Jesus had said this He went on ahead Going up to Jerusalem As he approached Bethphage And Bethany At the hill called the Mount of Olives
[20:01] He sent two of his disciples Saying to them Go to the village ahead of you And as you enter it You will find a colt tied there Which no one has ever ridden Untie it and bring it here If anyone asks you Why are you untying it?
[20:18] Tell him The Lord needs it Those who were sent ahead Went and found it Just as he had told them As they were untying the colt His owners asked them Why are you untying the colt?
[20:31] They replied The Lord needs it They brought it to Jesus Threw their cloaks on the colt And put Jesus on it As he went along People spread their cloaks On the road When he came near the place Where the road goes down To the Mount of Olives The whole crowd of disciples Began joyfully To praise God in loud voices For all the miracles They had seen Blessed is the King Who comes in the name of the Lord Peace in heaven And glory in the highest Some of the Pharisees In the crown said to Jesus Teacher Rebuke your disciples I tell you He replied If they keep quiet The stones will cry out As he approached Jerusalem And saw the city He wept over it And said If you Even you Had only known on this day What would bring you peace But now It is hidden from your eyes The days will come upon you When your enemies Will build an embankment
[21:32] Against you And encircle you And hem you in On every side They will dash you To the ground You and the children Within your walls They will not leave One stone on another Because you did not recognise The time of God's coming To you And before we come To hear God's word We will sing again About Palm Sunday Ride on in majesty All the crowds Hosanna cry Through waving branches Slowly ride O saviour To be crucified And the song Has these Contrasts Between The triumph of Christ And the Humiliation of Christ The fact that He's entering In apparent triumph But he's soon Going to be Humiliated in sacrifice So It's a very well written Song And let's sing it together 408 Ride on in majesty Ride on
[22:37] Ride on In majesty As all the tribes Hosanna cry Through waving branches Slowly ride O saviour To be crucified Ride on Ride on Ride on In majesty In lowly Palm Ride on Ride on To die O Christ Your triumph Now begin With captured Death And conquered Sin Ride on Ride on Ride on Ride on Ride on Ride on Ride on In majesty The angel Armies Of the sky Look down With sad And wandering
[23:37] Eyes To see The approaching Sacrifice Ride on Ride on In majesty The last and fiercest Holded by The father On his Sapphire throne Awaits his On Anointed Son Ride on Ride on In majesty In lowly Palm Ride on To die Now you're To die To die To die To die Then take O God Your power And reign And as we Come to hear
[24:37] God's word Let's pray May the words Of the speaker's Mouth And the Attention Of all our Hearts Be acceptable In your Sight O God My strength And my Redeemer Amen Well we're Going to Think about God's word Just now As we're Approaching Easter And you Remember that We've been Saying that The pandemic Which by God's grace Hopefully we're Getting through Is meant to Raise issues Of mortality Our fragility Issues of Life and Death Issues of Our relationship To our Creator Spiritual Issues Which are Essential to What it is For us to Be human We have These spiritual Needs It's not Really meant The pandemic Is not really Meant to Teach us How clever We are But to Show us How much We need God And what
[25:38] Better time To think About these Things than Easter Where we Look back And remember Jesus Death and Resurrection And perhaps If you're Tuning in To think about These things For the first Time How helpful For looking Up to Spiritual Realities Of God And eternity And perhaps It's got a new Relevance for you And even Looking forward To the Possibility In fact the Promise Of life After death And maybe That has a New interest For you And for us In this Time So we've been Looking at Who is Jesus And I said Why bother With this And here's A different Reason from Previously Because his Whole life Is in Effect An offer An invitation Of release From oppression Of peace Instead of Turmoil Of rightness Instead of Sin and Dysfunction And of hope For the future That's That's Really what His coming
[26:39] Speaks about And that's Exactly what Each of us Truly needs So we're Going to be Thinking about Who is Jesus And we Thought previously About his Person as Son of God And Son of Man and Lord which Sort of Sums it All up We looked At his Work to Reveal And redeem And reign And we've Been thinking In the evenings That Jesus Is the one Who prayed In the Garden If it is Possible Let this Cup pass From me And this Morning we're Thinking he's Jesus who Triumphfully Entered Jerusalem On Palm Sunday And if You're Tuning in In real Time Then we Look forward To hearing John Woods Speak a Bit more About following Jesus on The road To the cross This evening So that's What we're Going to Think about The Jesus Who entered Jerusalem On Palm Sunday And I'm Going to Say these Three things Number one That it Was a Planned Act A planned Act Number two That this Entry On the Donkey Into Jerusalem On what
[27:39] We now Call Palm Sunday Was a Challenging Act And number Three It was An Inviting Act So let's Think about This He enters Jerusalem There's this Arrangement For the Donkey As he Enters People Take off Their Cloaks Throw them On the Road And they Wave palm Branches To celebrate His coming And I Want to Say this Is Something Although It has A degree Of Spontaneity About it It's Actually Something Planned A little Bit like The way You plan A birthday Party Sending Out Invitations Preparing Presents Food Decorations Because Because It's A significant Thing And a Little bit Like That This Act Of Jesus Entering Jerusalem I'm Going to Say Is a Planned Act And it's Important To realise How In this Plan Jesus Is Really
[28:40] In Control Of The Situation So in Verse 28 It says When Jesus Had Said This He Went On Ahead Going Up To Jerusalem So He's He's Heading Towards Jerusalem And We Have Jesus Sending His Disciples On Ahead To Do This Pre-arranged Signal Of Untying The Cult And If They're Challenged On That They're To Say The Lord Needs It Then The Guy Will Say That Was The Code Word So We'll Let The Cult Go Off With These Couple Of People And So This Is A Pre-arranged Thing And In Verse 32 That's Exactly What Happens The Guy Says What Are You Doing With That Cult And They Say The Lord Needs It And He Says Off You Go Take It So This Is This Is Just In That Little Section It It It According To An Agenda That
[29:40] Jesus Has Thought Of Beforehand Presumably He He Worked That Out With Somebody Beforehand And This Is All An Example Of His Masterly Control But Actually There's More To It Than That Further Back In Luke's Gospel Actually Quite A Bit Further Back In Luke 9 51 One Of The Major Divisions Of The Gospel Says As The Time Approached For Him To Be Taken Up To Heaven Jesus Resolutely Set Out For Jerusalem And He Sent Messengers!
[30:12] On Ahead And So He's Headed To The Cross Notice That Jesus Resolutely Sets Out And Notice It's Shown To Be Or Said To Be The Time For Him To Be Taken Up To Heaven Not The Time For Him To To Tragically Die Although He Did Tragically Die But Something It's Put In Different Terms Than That He Is To Be Taken Up To Heaven So This Is Working Towards A Plan It's Working With An Aim There's Something Really Definite About This And We're Getting Towards The Climax Of That Plan But I'm Going To Say There's Even More To It Than That That This Event Has Been Planned All Through The Old Testament And I'm Not Going To Go Into Detailed Prophecies Although There's Going To Be One Coming Up Very Shortly But The Idea Of The King Coming Of The Kingdom Being Restored Of The Things That Were Begun In The Time Of David And Solomon But Fell Into
[31:12] Failure These Things Are Still On God's Agenda And Have Been Planned In The Mind And So I'm Saying It's A Planned Act And You Notice If We Go Back To Our Chapter That It Is So Rightly Planned So Not Random Let's Find The Right Place That In Chapter 19 Verse 40 When The Pharisees Question This And Say Shouldn't We Just Calm All This Calm This All Down Jesus Says I Tell You If My Disciples Keep Quiet The Stones Will Cry Out Creation Itself Is Saying This Is Right This Is So Appropriate And The Stones Were As It Were Saying This Is What We've Been Looking Forward To So We're Going To Cry Out Yes Blessed Is The King Who Comes
[32:13] In The Name Of The Lord Peace In Heaven And Glory In The High The Stones! Glory And Acclaim And Enthusiasm Of The Crowd Celebrating As Jesus Enters Jerusalem And There They Are In My Little Sketch With Jesus On The Donkey And The People Waving Palm Branches And The Stones Crying Out Or Whatever It Is Even That Doesn't Completely Match Up To How Right This Is For The King To Come With Great Acclaim He Did It Then But If You Like That Was A Dress Rehearsal Because He Will Come And He Will Do This Again Fully And Properly He Will Come In Bigger Glory He Will Come To Greater Acclaim He Will Come Not Just To A Distant City A Long Time Ago But He Will Come To The Whole World To Take The Throne Of The Whole World Jesus Is Risen And He Is Coming And He Will Come To Take His Throne As
[33:13] He Sort Of Did On This Triumphal Entry So It's A Plan Thing And There's A Plan At Work The Plan Has A Pur Number Two It's A Challenging Act And If You Didn't Know Much About It You'd Say What's Challenging About Riding On A Donkey And Going Into A City That Seems A Fairly Benign And Harmless Thing To Do It's Like Getting On Your Bike And Popping Into Worthing I Mean People Wouldn't See That As A Challenge I Mean If You Threw A Grenade Or Blew Up A Bridge Now That Would Be A Challenge But Riding On A Donkey Wouldn't Be And Well Actually It Is Because You've Got To Understand The Circumstances So It Wasn't Worthing It Was The City Of Jerusalem There's A Little Picture Of The City There Jerusalem Is Highly Significant There's A Mapa Mundi In Hereford Cathedral The Ancient Map And
[34:13] It Depicts The Whole World With Jerusalem At The Center Of It As Being The Navel Of The World And Although That Doesn't Make Much Sense Geographically Spiritually And Theologically Has A Lot Going For It Because In The Past Jerusalem Was God's Headquarters On Earth Through That Period It Was The Epicenter Of Everything The Earthly Center Of God's Presence And The Earthly!
[34:41] Center Of His Kingdom So For Somebody To Enter This City That Is A Revolutionary Act And That's The City That Jesus Is Entering It Is A Claim To The Throne Of The City Of God Nothing Less Than That And Also Think Of The Challenges Produced By The Expectations Just Note A Little Bit About The History Of Israel It's Important To Do That They Have 70 Years In The
[35:43] Key To It Is The Return Of The Monarchy The Return Of The King And There Are Expectations Of The Victory Of God Expectations Of The Defeat Of The Rebel Enemy To The Enemy To The Subduing Of Foreign Powers To Glad Service To The King Who Reigns On Zion Hill Those Are The Expectations And They're Powerful Expectations And Particularly At This Season Which Is The Passover Season When God's Victory Is Celebrated These Things Make For A Very Challenging Act If Somebody Rides Into This City With These Expectations And On A Donkey And Of Course Now I'm Going To Bring In The Prophecies And There's One Specific Prophecy Not The Only One But One Specific One Which Says Rejoice Greatly O Daughter Of Zion See Your King Comes To You Righteous And Having Salvation Gentle
[36:43] And Riding On A Donkey And They All Knew This And When It And They Started Rejoicing Greatly I Mean That's What's In Everybody's Mind The King Is Coming And Why Do I Say This Is Challenging Well It Is A Challenge It's Essentially This Challenge That The King Is Going To Come To Take The Throne And All The Other Powers And Authorities That Have Taken Power In That Interim Time Need To Get Off The Throne And That's Where That Christ Comes And Says You're On The Throne Of Your Own Life That's My Place I Come And Tell You To Get Off The Throne And Make Room For Me I've Come To Take That Throne It's A Challenge If You've Never Had That Challenge If You've Never Responded To That At All That's Maybe The Thing You Need To Do Now To Sort
[37:44] It And It's A Constant Challenge For Christian People To Renew That Commitment Every Day Who's Going To Be On The Throne Of My Life Today Is It Going To Be My Feelings Is It Going To Be My Desires Is It Going To Be What The World Tells Me Is It Going To Be The Lies Of The Devil Or Am I Going To Be Ruled By King Jesus And Is He Going To Be My King And Is Today Going To Be A Day In Which I Say Lord I'm Your Servant The Song Says Take My Heart It Is Thine Own Let It Be Thy Royal Throne And That's The Challenge Embodied As Jesus Comes Into Jerusalem And I Said Thirdly That It's An Inviting Act And You Might Say It Doesn't Seem Like!
[38:42] An Invitation But Of Course It Is Like The Arrival Of The Mobile Pizza Van There's An Invitation To Buy Pizza And There's The Gorilla Kitchen I'll give Them The Credit I Think I've Got A Credit For Them The Gorilla Kitchen Dot Com And They Come To The End Of Our Road And I Don't Think They Make A Noise Like The Ice Cream Van Does Or Whatever It Is But It's The Pizza Van Arrives And The Arrival Of The Pizza Van Is In Itself An Invitation To Come And Buy Pizza That's What It's There For And The Arrival Of Jesus Is An Invitation It's An Inviting Act And What Is The Offer Of Jesus Well He Comes As King And Saviour Or Saviour And King And As He Arrives In Verse 41 As He Approached Jerusalem He Saw The City And Wept Over It And Said If You Even You Had Only Known On This Day What
[39:44] Would Bring You Peace But Now It's Hidden From Your Eyes If You'd Only Known That I Came To Bring You Peace That Peace Was Within An Arm's Length Peace Was Just A Prayer Away And I Came To Bring You That Peace I Came To Bring You Peace That Was The Invitation It Was There For You But Well He Came To Bring Peace And Of Course Peace Is More Than Just An Absence Of Unruly Thoughts It's A Full Thing Prosperity And Fruitfulness And True Fulfillment Of What It Is To Be A Person In God's World I've Come To Bring You All That But But But In A World Of Restlessness And Wandering And Decay Rest Home Flourishing I've Come To Bring You Peace Says The Lord
[40:44] Isn't That An Encouraging Thing Even Even In These Days He's Come To Bring Peace And Of Course He Along With Peace He Brings His Rule!
[40:56] He's Come To Be King Can't Have The King's Peace Without Having The King And There There's The Rub Isn't It That In Order To Be A Subject Of The King There Has To Be A Willing Allegiance To Bow The Knee To Him To Bow Down Before Him To Yield To Him In Submission Say I'm Not Going To Fight You Anymore I'm Not Going To Resist You I'm Not Going To Disbelieve You I'm Going To Accept You And Trust You And You Will Be My King And I Will Be Your Subject And I'll Do What You Say Obedience Lord Help Us To Be Subject Of The King More And More More Thoroughly More Consistently More Truly So It's An Have Jesus' Reign And His Peace And As They Greet Him They Detect This Celebration Don't They They Begin
[41:56] Joyfully To Praise God In Loud Voices For All The Miracles They'd Seen Blessed Is The King Who Comes In The Name Of The Lord Peace In Heaven Glory In The Highest So It's A Celebratory Joyful Receiving Of The King Who Comes!
[42:14] With This Generous Invitation Rejoice Greatly Your King Comes To You However There Is This Huge But This Is Largely A Missed Opportunity And After Hundreds Of Years Of Patient Long Suffering This Is The Last Chance God Has Sent The Prophets One After Another He's Sent Warnings He's Been Patient He's Given He's Given People Second Chances And Third Chances And Fourth Chances And Hundreds Of Years Of Chances But On This Last Occasion He Sends His Son Saying At Least They'll Listen They'll Listen They'll Listen To Him Well They Don't After Hundreds Of Years Of Long Suffering This Is The Last Chance And Here Are The Pharisees Responding As They Do Seeing All This Seeing The Signs Of This The Indications
[43:14] Of It And The Response of so many people, they say, shut them up. Teacher, rebuke your disciples. You know, how wrong these disciples are. How disgraceful that they should be behaving like this. Shut them up as quickly as possible. Teacher, rebuke your disciples. And so there's the Pharisees with their hot words, angry words. And here are the Pharisees, the experts in the law, the people who think they're a step ahead of the rest of their contemporaries in obeying the law of Moses, in understanding what it's all about. They're the ones who should have known best, the ones who should have recognised Jesus and said, we've been waiting so long. Come and take your place that you ought to have, you know, in the, in John, is it chapter 10? The gatekeeper who opens the door and lets the shepherd come and take his sheep. That's what they should have been. The watchman opens the gate.
[44:23] But they didn't. Why didn't they? Well, we wonder, don't we, did they fear loss of control? They were people who had authority and kudos and respect and they would have had to let that go. Would they have had to endure the humiliation of saying they got it wrong because they thought they got it all right and could see everything and got it all taped and Jesus sort of fires torpedo through that? Or of course, just on that very basic human level, they would have had to hand over their lives and their power and put that all in the hands of someone else. And they weren't willing to do that. But Jesus adds a rather sober note to this. Well, not only saying to them, I tell you, if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out. But as he approaches Jerusalem and sees the city, he weeps over it. If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace, but now it's hidden from your eyes. The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another because you did not recognise the time of God's coming to you. You didn't recognise the time of God's coming to you. And to not recognise, to reject, to refuse, is to invite destruction. And Jesus is following the long line from Moses through the prophets who say that if the city of God cannot be populated by the obedient people of God, then that city will be destroyed. And it had been destroyed before but rebuilt, but now it's destroyed for the last time, as it were, that God is moving out and no longer making this his headquarters. He has a better city in a bigger city to which this earthly Jerusalem pointed. But now this will be destroyed and it will be the time, not actually when God's purposes are focused on this city, but the time when God's purposes go right out in explosive fulfilment into the nations. So to reject this invitation is to invite horrible destruction. And Jesus spells it out for the city in these graphic terms. But of course that isn't the worst consequence of rejecting Jesus, that those were just on a very temporary physical level.
[47:21] There's a destruction in hell that Jesus says, if you reject me in this day and age, it's not your city that will be destroyed, it's your body and soul that will be destroyed. The consequences of rejecting the king are just awful. So we've thought, what did he come to do? He came riding triumphantly into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. And I've said this act was, number one, a planned act. A plan, a part of the big, big, big plan of God for the world. Here's something of huge significance. You can almost read the future of the world if you look closely at this man on the donkey entering Jerusalem. And he comes as the king to claim his throne. But even this, in this, the arrival is sort of incomplete. And the arrival will be fulfilled when he comes again to claim the throne of the world. Number two, it's a challenging act. He comes as king. And the challenge is to get off the throne and let Jesus take his rightful place. Challenge to us to get off the throne and let Jesus take his rightful place and not quietly get back on the throne again later, but to stay off the throne and let Jesus be Lord, let Jesus be king in every conceivable way in our lives, in our future, in our relationships, in our service, in the way we spend our time, in the way we apportion our money, in the way we think and feel and act that Jesus should be Lord of all. And thirdly, it was an inviting act. It's an offer, like the presence of the pizza van. It's an offer to accept his rule, which is a rule of peace, which brings peace in this world, in the sense, and in the world to come.
[49:30] And of course, that offer is still on the table. It didn't expire on that day or any of those days. It's still on the table. The king says, if you open up to me and bow to me, I will bring you the things of peace. And of course, it is a time-limited offer. For Jerusalem, it was the last chance in that sense.
[49:55] But the last chance hasn't yet taken place for our world. There's still time. But that offer needs to be taken up while there is time. And if you have not taken up that offer as yet, now's the time to do so. Why not do so straight away and get off the throne of your life, ask Jesus to take his rightful place and to bring his rule of rightness and peace into your life this Easter.
[50:26] And there is a footnote. To reject that is an awful thing to do with consequences that hardly dare one might hardly speak about. That's where Jesus ended. That's where I'm going to end. Amen.
[50:50] So, as we close, we remember that the king who entered and the king who became humiliated in sacrifice is now the reigning king. The Lord Jesus is king. The Lord is king. Lift up your voice, O earth and all you heavens rejoice. From world to world, the Lord shall, sorry, from world to world, the song shall ring. The Lord omnipotent is king. And it speaks in verse four about your father reigns, your God is king, and Christ is seated at his side, a man of love, the crucified. So let's close by singing number 500.
[51:44] The Lord is king. The Lord is king. Lift up your voice, O earth and all you heavens rejoice. From world to world, the song shall ring. The Lord omnipotent is king. The Lord omnipotent is king.
[52:12] The Lord is king. The Lord is king. Who then shall dare resist his will, distrust his care, or quarrel with his wise decrees, for doubt his royal promises.
[52:35] The Lord is king. The Lord is king. The Lord is king. Child of the dust. The judge of all the earth is just.
[52:49] Holy and true are all his ways. Let every creature speak his praise.
[53:02] The Lord is king. The Lord is king. The Lord is king. And Christ is seated at his side, the man of love, the crucified. One Lord, one kingdom, all secures. The race and life and death are yours. Through earth and heaven, one song shall ring.
[53:44] The Lord omnipotent is king. And having heard about the Saviour, let's close with this prayer.
[54:02] To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and has made us to be a kingdom and priests, to serve his God and Father. To him be glory and power forever and ever. Amen.
[54:17] To him be glory and power forever and ever. Amen. Amen indeed. So good to be together. Good to be with you. And a great theme for us to be considering in these next days.
[54:31] But that's all for now. And I'll say goodbye. Bye bye just now. Bye.