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[0:00] Just over three years ago, King Charles was crowned as King of England on May 6, 2023.

[0:30] There was a church on this day that had been covered in gold leaf that had been used since 1762. There was a symphony that played that day that had written 12 original pieces just for the occasion.

[0:49] The crown that he wore on his head was made of solid gold, contained 400 gems, and was worth $57 million.

[1:07] The scepter that he held in his hand had 300 diamonds, rubies, and emeralds encrusted into it.

[1:19] And the centerpiece of that scepter was a single diamond worth 530 carats donated by South Africa.

[1:30] I don't know how many ladies have a ring on your finger that's 530 carats. Do we have anybody that's got something like that? The scepter was worth $400 million.

[1:47] Just recently, this clown... And I used that word intentionally.

[2:03] I thought about that word. It's not something that I'm saying off of the cuff. King of England down through the centuries has been the head of the Church of England.

[2:20] And as the head of the Church of England, the title that he bore was Guardian of the Faith. I don't know if any of you saw recently that he does not consider himself that anymore.

[2:35] That he considers his title now to be Guardian of all faiths. And he is actively participating in the destruction of his own country and doesn't even recognize that.

[2:53] That's why I would refer to him as a foolish, unwise, lost clown.

[3:09] And yet he was celebrated in such a magnificent way. Today we come across another coronation of sorts.

[3:21] That's what we've been building toward. My drums are gone. And I'm sad. Oh, there they are back here. I'm going to have to go all the way back here and play my drums.

[3:35] Remember, Jesus has been proclaiming to this point, what? Kingdom of God is at hand. And that drum beat has been getting louder and louder.

[3:46] And it's terrible playing. But now we can put the drum set away because this is the day. The kingdom of God is at hand.

[3:56] The kingdom of God stands right in front of them. And for the moment, it seems as if they are waiting and accepting and looking as if the kingdom may actually be established.

[4:16] Jesus knows differently. The sovereign king of the universe rides into Jerusalem.

[4:26] There's no billion dollars worth of trinkets that will be placed on his head or that he would hold in his hand.

[4:37] Just a donkey. Just riding on a simple donkey. But even here, everything is divinely orchestrated. And in God's perfect timing, here Jesus comes.

[4:52] Now, I'm going to be telling you the end of the story before we even start the beginning of the story. So you kind of, through the Gospels, when we do these, you already know the end of the story anyway, right?

[5:06] Unless you've never heard the Gospel message or if you've never read through the Gospels before, you kind of know how this works. But today we're going to actually do that with just the little bit of the story that we're going to be looking at today.

[5:19] And as we do that, I want you to recognize, and you have this on your notes, the great tension that is in the text. This is one of the aspects of Bible study that you would do well to pay attention to.

[5:33] To notice the tension that is created in the text. The event that we're about to witness, to read the story of, is known as, anybody know what it's called as Jesus approaches Jerusalem?

[5:50] What's it referred to as? You might even have a heading in your Bibles over this section of the Scriptures. Luke chapter 19, verse 28 is where we're starting. Anybody know the title of this?

[6:02] Luke chapter 19, verse 28 is where we're going to be.

[6:32] That doesn't sound very triumphant to me. I mean, if you throw a birthday party for a kid, and you let go of all the stops, you just bring everything out, and you've got a clown, a real clown, who comes and performs for the birthday boy or the birthday girl, and you've got, you know, balloons and cake and friends, and everybody's there to celebrate, and they sing happy birthday, and then after the party is over and everyone goes home, the boy is in the corner crying.

[7:07] I don't think you would say that's a happy birthday. And here we have Jesus weeping as he approaches the city.

[7:23] So what is that about? So let's do this on your notes. The tension created by the contrast between the joyful praise of the crowds, and that's what we'll witness, genuine joyful praise, and the weeping of Jesus begs this question.

[7:44] Why was it like that? Why does the entrance of our Lord into Jerusalem seem so triumphant? I mean, they gave it that title. When our Lord's assessment of it implies the opposite, the opposite of triumphant, the opposite of joyful.

[8:03] He's weeping in this. Why is it like that? So let's dig into the text and into the story and see what happens here and why that might be the case.

[8:16] So when Jesus had said these things, well, what things? Remember, he's finishing his in Jericho. He's with Zacchaeus, the wee little man, right?

[8:31] And Zacchaeus gets saved and all those wonderful things that happen as a result of that. And then he tells them the story that we looked at a few weeks ago of the ten minas or minas, the coins that he's giving to his workers, his servants, his stewards, to go and put it into use before he comes back to set up his kingdom.

[8:53] So we have already some hints, some major hints dropped along the way that this wasn't going to be the time of the kingdom because he tells them a story about the king going away to receive his crown, if you will, going away to receive his kingdom and then coming back.

[9:12] And in the meantime, we, his servants, are supposed to be busy about carrying on enterprise, pragmatic work for the kingdom to make way for the setting up of his kingdom.

[9:31] So after he says these things, he went on ahead going up to Jerusalem. Now, the traveling from Jericho to Jerusalem is basically he's traveling southwest on the map.

[9:46] But it's going up in elevation. To get to Jerusalem, you climb up to where Jerusalem is at, up in altitude.

[9:57] And so they're going up to Jerusalem to get there. And when he drew near to Bethpage and Bethany, which are right on the outside of the city, these are little villages.

[10:08] I guess in our vernacular, we'd call them suburbs. These are two little suburbs, if you will, of Jerusalem, right outside the city gates of Jerusalem.

[10:20] And at the mount that is called Olivet or the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples into town. And we don't know who they are. We're not told this.

[10:31] So it's not like we're going to be able to get to heaven and by name go up to one of the 12 or the two guys and say, hey, tell us about this story. We're going to have to figure out who it was first when we get there, right?

[10:43] If you're going to want to know this story, because I think it's going to be an interesting story. Jesus tells them, go into the village in front of you, to Bethpage or to Bethany, which one we don't know there either.

[10:56] Where on entering, you will find a colt on which no one has ever yet sat. So what we have is a donkey jacking, kind of like a carjacking.

[11:12] They're going to go in and steal this donkey. At least that's how it appears to us, right? It's like, really? This is like the first carjacking in recorded history, but it's not a car.

[11:26] It's a donkey. It's a young donkey. We know from other portions that it's a donkey that no one has yet ridden on. And so it's been preserved, divinely preserved for this purpose, to escort, to have the king of all kings ride upon it into Jerusalem.

[11:50] And this actually is fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy from Zechariah 9, verse 9, one of the minor prophets.

[12:01] And there we read, rejoice greatly, daughter Zion. Shout, daughter Jerusalem. See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, on the foal of a donkey.

[12:14] And so Jesus here is fulfilling this hundred years old prophecy about how he would approach the city of Jerusalem.

[12:25] And these people would have been students of the scriptures. And so to see Jesus entering Jerusalem, riding on this young donkey, would have brought back this imagery and would have been a big, whoa, kind of moment for them to see this.

[12:44] So he tells the two guys to go into one of the towns there approaching Jerusalem. And to find this donkey, must have been, had a bumper sticker on it, said, Jesus, take the wheel on the donkey.

[13:02] And if anyone asks you, forgive me, if anyone asks you, why are you untying it? You shall say this, the Lord has need of it.

[13:15] Now, we don't know. Is this a miraculous thing that's happening here that the owner of the donkey is going to be like, as soon as he hears these words, it's going to be like, oh, okay.

[13:28] And, you know, just miraculously says, yeah, go ahead, take my donkey. This is a prized possession. A young donkey like this, a year old, never been ridden on.

[13:38] This is worth some money. And they're just going to take it and the owner is just going to be okay. Or is this someone that Jesus knew? Maybe someone who came to faith in Christ sometime earlier in the gospel story.

[13:53] And maybe the guy handed Jesus his business card and said, here, I'm in the donkey business. And if you ever have need of anything, just let me know. I'm here for you.

[14:04] And Jesus thought about it for a moment. Oh, by the way, you know, a couple of months from now, I'm going to be coming into Jerusalem. I might have need of one of those new donkeys of yours.

[14:17] And you got one with air conditioning in it? No, I'm full of this stuff this morning. But we don't know.

[14:29] I have no problem believing that it's miraculous at all because of what we've already seen and witnessed throughout the rest of the gospel, right, is Jesus performing miracle after miracle.

[14:39] So this could have been a miraculous moment as well or it could have been something that was prearranged. We just simply don't know. And so this is what I find out. That's one of the many things as we're having camp conversations with the disciples, right?

[14:53] I don't know, you know, if in heaven we're sitting around campfire making s'mores and talking about this kind of stuff. So those who were sent went away and found it just as he told them.

[15:07] And I wonder if the two guys are like, did Jesus really tell us to go steal a donkey? Because I don't think that's really part of the program. I didn't think that that's really what we were supposed to be about.

[15:18] So they come into the gates of the town and there's the donkey. They spot it. And I wonder how long it took them. You go get it. No, you go get it. No, you go get it. You know, did it take them some guts to get up the nerve to do that?

[15:32] But they found the donkey and they went and they untied it and they took it. And as they were untying the colt, its owner said to them, hey, why are you untying the colt? And they said, the Lord has need of it.

[15:43] And again, we don't get the follow-up expression from the owner. You know, okay, it just happens and it works. And they take the colt.

[15:55] And they brought it to Jesus and throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. So this is remarkable too. Now the cloak was one of their most prized possessions.

[16:10] It was worth, when they would travel, their cloak was probably worth the most amount of money, unless they happened to have gold or other precious materials with them. But the average person wouldn't have had those kinds of things, but their cloak, they would have.

[16:25] And so their cloak served several purposes. They would wear it in the heat of the day to keep the sun off of them. They would wear it in the cold of night.

[16:36] They would use it as a blanket. In the cold of winter, they would use it as a coat. And so this is not something that they would take lightly and just give it away.

[16:47] And yet here they are taking their cloaks and they put it on the donkey and then put Jesus on the donkey on their cloaks. And now the preparations have been made and Jesus is now on the move into Jerusalem.

[17:04] And as he rode along, now get this, they spread their cloaks on the road. So they're like, if you will, this is like a makeshift red carpet.

[17:18] So they're taking their cloaks and they're putting them down on the road in front of the donkey for the donkey to walk on. Now, if you can imagine what those roads in and out of Jerusalem, especially now, the city is swelling with people coming in from all over the known world to celebrate the Passover.

[17:42] And so the streets would have been crowded already with animals and with people and so forth. And I want you to think about emissions for a moment.

[17:56] Not emissions from your vehicle, but emissions that come from donkeys and camels and other animals, sheep and so forth, that are coming in and out of the city gates.

[18:09] What kind of emissions do these animals create? Yeah, yeah, we're not supposed to say that in a company like this, right? But think about this.

[18:20] They're taking their cloaks, again, prized possessions, and they're spreading them out on the road over whatever is there.

[18:31] This is why washing feet was such a big deal in their culture, because they wore sandals. And when you wear sandals on dirty, dusty, full of, you know what, full of emissions, donkey emissions and other emissions, you get why it's important, why when you come into someone's house, you would want to wash their feet before they came in past the entrance to their home.

[18:57] But here they were, not caring at all. I mean, this is it. The king is here. The king has arrived. Who cares about my cloak? This is it.

[19:09] This is the moment that we've been praying for. This is the moment that all of the Old Testament scriptures have been pointing to. The Messiah is here. Our king is here. We are going to be free from Rome.

[19:24] That's what was on their mind. So, yeah, gladly, I'm going to throw my cloak down in front of the donkey as he enters town. And 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 with a loud voice.

[19:48] And what they were saying was based on what they had seen for all the mighty works that they had seen. They're praising God because the people in this crowd, massive, as big of a crowd as Jesus has already had, multitudes we've already seen leading up to this.

[20:10] So this is multitudes and multitudes of people that are there to welcome him and be in this parade, if you will, as it enters into the city. And they had heard and they had seen all these miraculous things already happening.

[20:26] And so in their minds, this is the moment they've been waiting for. For all the mighty works that they had seen.

[20:37] And they're praising God and they're saying things like this. Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest.

[20:49] They recognize, at least in their own malfunctioning minds, they don't get it yet.

[21:01] But at least they got the right king. At least that part they got right. We see it in Matthew. Matthew's account of this.

[21:12] The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted, Hosanna to the son of David. These are all declarations of the deity of Jesus Christ.

[21:22] Of him being the Messiah, the son of God, sent by God the Father. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. That is a reference, that phrase, in the name of the Lord, in the authority and in the power of God Almighty.

[21:40] This is the one who's coming. He is God. That he comes from, that he is the son of David. Taught by the Pharisees that the son of David, a descendant of David, would be the Messiah.

[21:54] They're claiming that. That he is the one. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Or Hosanna, meaning save now. Save us now, Jesus.

[22:05] We want to be saved by you now. Now what that saved means is different than what we think of.

[22:17] Because we're here in church and we've been hearing the gospel for so long. When we hear save us, we think salvation. We think of spiritual salvation.

[22:30] Save me from my sin so that when I die, I'll go to heaven and be with you forever and ever. That's kind of what we think of when we hear the save us.

[22:42] Save us now. That's not what they were saying. They were using those words. They were saying those words to the right person, to the king of kings.

[22:53] But that's not what they meant. They were saying basically, save us from Rome. Save us from this life of hardship and pain and suffering.

[23:12] Of bondage. Of being subjugated to Rome. Of being under their thumb. It's not supposed to be like this for the children of Abraham.

[23:24] For the children of David. We were meant to rule and reign. That's what you've called us to. And now we've been subjugated.

[23:37] And now our Messiah has come. And we now will be set free. And it's going to be one grand party. Oh, there's going to be some battles up ahead.

[23:49] Yeah, Jesus is going to get his armor on and he's going to develop an army. And, and, and, but man, it's going to be glorious. And it's going to be wonderful to see Rome finally put underfoot where they belong.

[24:04] That's what they're crying for. So back in our text in Luke 19 and some of the Pharisees in the crowd. I've said this before.

[24:19] It cracks me up that you have some modern, modern skeptics today. Modern, modern. I don't even skeptic is the right word. These are just modern. Modern. Modern. They hate the gospel, even though they might wear a religious label.

[24:36] They would say that Jesus never declared that he was the Messiah, that Jesus never declared that he was God. Oh, the Pharisees, they didn't get that.

[24:48] The Pharisees understood completely what those phrases that were just being shouted said. When, when they said, uh, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna to the highest.

[24:59] Uh, blessed is the, the, the, the, the son of David. They, they understood completely that those were references to the deity. That Jesus was declaring himself to be God, was accepting of that praise.

[25:14] And the Pharisees were ticked off. They didn't like it at all. And so as they're observing and, and they're trying, they're trying to ambush Jesus already at this point.

[25:26] They're looking for opportunities to, to, to, in a, in a quiet way, because they're afraid of the crowd. They're afraid of the multitude. They're, they're looking in a, in a quiet way to get Jesus and pull him aside so they can arrest him and deal with him.

[25:41] Put him to death. And so they're, they're, they're, they're looking for more charges to bring against him for more reasons to say that this guy is a heretic, that he's a blasphemer.

[25:56] He says, they, they, they refer to him as teacher, rabbi. Rabbi, rebuke your disciples. We can't, we can't handle it.

[26:09] In our ears, our precious ears can't hear this blasphemy. How they're proclaiming that you are the son of David, that you are the son of God, that you're the, make them stop.

[26:22] Imagine the drama, drama queens. Get them to stop. He answered, I tell you, if these were silent, if these people were silent, the very stones would cry out.

[26:43] Any of you like me kind of wish that there would have been a moment there where everyone would have just stopped so we could hear the stones cry out? I don't, I don't think he meant the rolling stones.

[26:55] Again, I'm full of these bad ones today. I would have loved to have heard that. I think we'll hear that when Jesus comes.

[27:09] So what do you think Jesus is saying here when he says this? If these were silent, the stones would cry out the same thing. Yes, I am God in the flesh, standing right in front of you.

[27:24] And you don't get it. You don't get it. We get this. I showed this to you earlier. And when he drew near, he saw the city.

[27:36] And he wept. I imagine at this point, the praises are still ringing out. The people are still shouting. The cloaks and the palm branches and all of this stuff are being thrown in the road in front of him.

[27:55] And he halts the procession. And he looks out over this precious city to him. And he weeps over the city.

[28:09] And this is why. He wept over it, saying, Would that you, meaning Jerusalem, the people of Jerusalem, the people that he came to save, people that he came to redeem, would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace.

[28:34] When Jesus talks about being the prince of peace, when the Bible makes reference to Jesus being the prince of peace, going back to the announcement of his birth, right?

[28:48] Wonderful counselor, prince of peace. It's a reference to how he brings peace to us with him, not peace amongst ourselves.

[29:00] Now, if we're at peace with God, the chances of us being at peace with each other are going to be really great, especially if we're all at peace with God. That day is coming. When we're all going to be at peace with God, right?

[29:11] In the kingdom. And because we're at peace with God. But that's what he's talking about. If they understood, they don't get it. They don't get it.

[29:24] What it would mean for them to have peace had they known on this day the things that make for peace, which is a right relationship with God.

[29:34] And that's the reason that he came, to make this possible, to make a right relationship with God possible. But now they are hidden from your eyes.

[29:47] They don't get it. They don't get it. They don't see it. For the days will come upon you when your enemies will set up a barricade around you. Now, this is Jesus.

[30:02] As he's speaking this, there are some people there who are able to hear what he's saying. The writers of the gospel are eyewitnesses now to these words that Jesus is speaking.

[30:17] And he's speaking these words. And this is, make no mistake, this is prophecy. Something that's coming in the future.

[30:30] And this is near-term prophecy. It's not coming, it's not talking about end times events. It's talking about, Jesus is actually talking about something that's about 30 years ahead of him.

[30:42] And he said, the days will come upon you when your enemies will set up a barricade or an encampment 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.

[31:04] He's talking about the city of Jerusalem, the city that he loves. God allowed that city to be completely and utterly destroyed already once Old Testament Jerusalem failed to follow his commands and God followed through with that warning that if they failed to disobey, that God would bring destruction and devastation upon them.

[31:29] And that's what happened in 586 BC when Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came in and completely and utterly destroyed the city, destroyed the temple, tore it down block from block, just leveled it to the ground.

[31:42] Multitudes of people died. Happened again. In and around AD 68, 69, 70, so it's about 30 years from this point, Rome finally has had it with Jerusalem, with the Jews and their rebellion and their sedition and they sent an army.

[32:11] This is all recorded history. This is not fairy tale. None of this is fairy tale, by the way. People that talk about, well, I don't even know if Jesus existed. It's because they're not students of history.

[32:25] Rome came in and utterly destroyed. They set up a barricade around the city. They built a literal embankment around the walls of the city.

[32:38] So nothing going in, nothing coming out. Anyone tried to leave the city, they killed them. Didn't matter, man, woman, or child.

[32:50] Nothing went in, nothing went out. They built scaffolding. They took years. It took over a year to build scaffolding. You guys know what scaffolding is.

[33:01] They built scaffolding around the walls of Jerusalem and as people tried to escape, they took them and nailed them, not to a cross, but to the scaffolding as a warning for anyone else who would try to attempt to leave the city.

[33:21] Inside the city, complete chaos. Starvation. People were dying of thirst.

[33:32] People were, they cut off the water going into the city. They cut off food going into the city. They started cannibalizing children of God.

[33:42] Well, over 100,000 Jews were killed during this two to three year siege upon the city.

[33:55] And when it was over, the general went in, they utterly destroyed the city, utterly destroyed the walls, tore them down to the ground, tore the temple down to the ground, burned everything in it, completely and utterly destroyed it.

[34:17] So that today, there's hardly anything that remains. You've heard of the wailing wall in Jerusalem? That's actually part of the foundation of the temple.

[34:27] You had to go underground to find anything remaining from the temple. So when Jesus is approaching the city on this donkey, and he knows this is what's going to happen, he knows that this crowd that is praising his name right now will in less than a week start shouting, crucify him, crucify him.

[34:56] It's part of the plan. Jesus came knowing he was going to the cross. Was the offer of the kingdom valid? Was it genuine? Absolutely. But he knew that they would reject him.

[35:12] That he would go to the cross to pay the penalty for our sin. And he knew what was to happen to the city that he loved so much.

[35:31] And therefore he's weeping. He's weeping. They will not leave one stone upon another in you because you did not know.

[35:44] You didn't recognize it. you didn't get it when the time of your visitation came. So what do we learn from this story, this event?

[36:07] Well, the crowd that day, they had the right king, the wrong kingdom. I want to share a couple things with you by way of the first couple things I'm going to talk about are negative, things that they missed, things that didn't get right.

[36:27] And then I want to end our time talking about the things that we can do to recognize the right kingdom, the right king and the right kingdom. so that we can, like the workers in the parable before this event happens, so that we can be prepared for when he does come to set up his kingdom.

[36:46] What should we be doing? And just a few things there actually gleaned from the story. Now, I want you to understand this too. What this is not and what this is.

[37:01] When we talk about the kingdom of God, here's the first thing that I want us to understand and to see that what they were doing then. The king will hear our expectations.

[37:13] We have certain expectations for what the Christian life is supposed to be about because we get taught whether we recognize it or not in certainly in American Christianity in 2026, we get taught to have certain expectations about what this Christian life is supposed to be about.

[37:32] And oftentimes we need to be corrected about those expectations. He will hear just like these people had expectations. Jesus knew what they were expecting.

[37:44] He will hear us in our expectations, but he will not give in to them. He will still carry out his will and his plan. And we need to be aware of that.

[37:55] another way of saying that is this. Obedience is our issue, not his.

[38:06] Obedience is our role. It's our responsibility, obedience to him. It's not his role. Obedience is not his role.

[38:18] It's our role. And yet today, in some churches and some ministries, you have preachers teaching, people teaching other believers about how to pray to God, and actually praying in such a way as to expect God to obey what my demands are.

[38:43] God, you've promised this. Therefore, I am just claiming your promise. And you must fulfill it. Never mind that I might be claiming a promise that's meant for a kingdom that we're not yet in.

[39:02] A lot of these Old Testament promises that were made for the kingdom, they're not intended for us because we're not living in the kingdom.

[39:16] We're living in the time before the kingdom comes, before the coming of the kingdom. And so Jesus, if you remember, promised us hardship and trouble in this life.

[39:32] and yes, it will be difficult to live for the Lord in obedience to him during the time in which we live. So, sometimes you will hear, well, if you just believe in Jesus and you follow him, he's going to make your life better.

[39:54] Beware of that. Beware of that message. because that's not what Jesus promised. Now, I do believe that if you follow the Lord, if you believe him, he will make you better at life.

[40:10] In other words, if you live for the Lord, there are some proverbs, there are some promises in scripture that we can claim in the here and now, but we need to discern what those are and to trust that when we live for him, yes, there are some principles in life that God will honor and you will do better in life, but it's not a guarantee.

[40:37] You and I know all too well people who live for the Lord, love the Lord, and yet terrible things happen to them. Difficult seasons of life that people go through even though they love the Lord.

[40:53] trials and tribulations, those await all of us in this lifetime. There is no guarantee of a carefree, wonderful life if you live in obedience to him.

[41:11] And yet, that's the call that we have been given, to obey him, to follow him. Understand, he will carry out his will.

[41:26] So the second thing here is this, and this is really pointed out in the text here, that having the right king with the wrong kingdom really is a problem. Let me give you the rest of that.

[41:39] Will bring nothing but frustration. Do you think the crowd was frustrated that day when the only thing that Jesus did was get off the donkey and go into the city?

[41:51] There was no big, like, millions of angels coming in. There wasn't, you know, this call to arms. None of that.

[42:04] Matter of fact, Jesus goes in, and we'll see, he goes into the temple area and begins to trash it because of what they had turned it into. We'll see that next time. I imagine that a lot of them were very frustrated.

[42:19] Wait a minute, this is not how it's supposed to be. Did we get it wrong? Did we miss it? Did we think this was the guy, but he's not really the Messiah?

[42:31] Because the Messiah is supposed to do all of this stuff, and that's not what this guy's doing. Confusion, frustration, it's all a part of it. We have it, we face it too.

[42:43] People who want to worship the right king, but the wrong kingdom. You see, they were looking for an earthly kingdom.

[42:58] That's what they were looking for. What they weren't looking for was spiritual transformation. They wanted their life to get better now.

[43:12] They wanted Jesus to put the groceries on the table, to do away with all of our enemies, to make everything just wonderful, make my kids healthy, fill my bank account with cash, and Jesus, this is, I mean, you're just going to come and make everything wonderful, right?

[43:29] That's what we expect, life in the kingdom. That's kind of what we're after. That's what we want. And people today still have that same mindset.

[43:42] that. It's what can Jesus do for you? What have you done for me lately, even? We see this happening in modern day Christianity, at least those who wear the label of Christian.

[44:02] After all, we have been taught, and we see this so much on television and churches as well, but lots of so-called Christian television promotes this type of gospel mentality.

[44:19] We've been taught to believe that God came to fix my life, right? He's going to make my kids better, he's going to make my marriage better, if I'm not married, he's going to find someone for me, he's going to make my job better, he's going to make my health better, he's just going to do everything, everything's going to be better because I'm going to follow Jesus.

[44:40] And there are people who outright speak that without equivocation, they just out and out say, listen, your life's going to be better now, Jesus is going to take care of you, Jesus is going to provide all of this stuff for you.

[45:03] It's not why Jesus came. Now when Jesus comes to set up his kingdom, some of those kingdom promises are going to follow as well. Because yes, in the kingdom, by the way, you and I in the kingdom, when the kingdom comes, we're going to have immortal bodies.

[45:26] How healthy are you going to be with that? Pretty healthy, right? Are you going to have problems with your gout in the kingdom?

[45:36] kingdom? Are you going to have problems with your digestion? Is your lower back going to bother you? No. No. You're going to run around like a spring chicken all the time, forever and ever and ever.

[45:52] Okay? In the kingdom. Not in the here and now. I don't know if any of you are like me, you get the whole broken down thing, right?

[46:03] Your body breaking down and getting older and decaying. Paul said decayed. We don't like to refer to ourselves as decaying, but that's what this is.

[46:16] Are we going to have to worry about money in the kingdom? No, we're going to be children of the king. We're children of the king now. We get that part of the promise now, but the financial part of it, all the inheritance part of it, all that comes with that, we're not going to care about money in the kingdom, by the way.

[46:35] You know how much gold is worth today? Anybody? I don't even know. I don't have any, so I don't have to keep track of it. 4,000 an ounce, Rick says.

[46:47] Okay, 4,000 an ounce. I believe you. You know how much it's going to be worth in the kingdom in heaven? They pave the streets with it. It's worth the same as asphalt. I think that's what that's about.

[47:00] that's going to be the economy in the kingdom, right? It's just money's not going to be an issue. We're not going to worry about are you going to have plenty of groceries?

[47:12] I don't think you're worried about that. I don't think you're worried about your next meal. I don't think you're worried about arguments with your family, the fallout that you had with your cousin or your aunt or whatever it is.

[47:24] you're not even going to have to worry about your ex. It's all going to be wonderful, but that's not the here and now.

[47:37] That's the kingdom. We're not in it now. This idea of, well, if I trust Jesus, he's going to fix my life.

[47:54] Yeah, there are going to be some things about your life that are better. Absolutely. You're going to have a peace that passes all understanding. You're going to have an assurance of your right relationship with God that other people, you're going to have a hard time explaining that to other people.

[48:10] You know, other people, when it comes to the subject of heaven and eternity and things like that, well, I hope I get to go to heaven when I die. That's a lousy place to be. Can I suggest that? If you're wondering where you're going to spend eternity, that's not a great place to be.

[48:23] There's no assurance of that. There's no peace there. There's no joy there at all. But when you come to faith in Christ, the Bible promises that you will know that you have eternal life.

[48:35] That he has given you his spirit as a down payment, literally, Ephesians 1, as an earnest deposit, that he is coming back for you.

[48:49] And you know where you will spend eternity. You might fear death and pain and those kinds of things and sorrow. I get that.

[49:01] But you can still know, no matter how you die, or no matter when you die, I'm going to be in heaven.

[49:13] I'm going to that kingdom. I'm going to be there. That's his promise. promise. Has he ever gone bad on his promises?

[49:24] I don't think so. I don't think so. Matter of fact, the way I've heard it put before, the guy who rose from the dead, I'm listening to him. I'm going to follow him because he's been there, done that.

[49:38] So I'm with him. And he's with me. That's the best part. God, I'm going to do it. And that's coming.

[49:50] But until then, we're going to face the hardships of life. Much better to do that with the Lord than without. Because that peace that passes understanding, that joy that's incomprehensible to others as you're going through the pain and the sorrow of life, that joy that still remains in spite of what you face, can't explain that away.

[50:16] You can't describe that to people. They don't get that. They don't understand that. And that's something that you have in this life.

[50:29] But this God's going to fix my life, God's going to make my life better is an expression of what is known as the prosperity gospel. Now, the prosperity gospel is an evil.

[50:45] It is an evil thing. And I put this down on your notes. It is a false gospel. Because these prosperity preachers and prosperity gospel proclaimers are promising you something that God never intended to promise you in the here and now.

[51:09] it is coming in the kingdom but not today. And so while they are running around in their fancy suits and their fancy cars and their fancy jets and all this other kind of stuff and they are saying, well, yeah, send in your money because when you send in your money that is a seed and it is planted and etc.

[51:28] Things that are true in the kingdom that aren't true now. It is just an expression of a false gospel. George Barna did a survey some years ago and George Barna has been a gift to the church in the sense of he takes some surveys and kind of gives us an idea of where Christianity is at, where Christianity, how Christians are thinking in the here and now and today in today's world.

[51:56] USA Today did an article, not a bastion of truthful news. they had a headline that said, more Americans tailoring religion to fit their needs.

[52:14] How do you like that? This is what George Barna's survey discovered, that more Americans today are tailoring, as in, that's an old-fashioned word when you would take your suit of clothes to a tailor and he would adjust them to fit your body.

[52:29] Well, more Americans today are tailoring their religion to fit their needs. In other words, they are fashioning a god after their own image.

[52:42] An idol is what they're doing. It's not what the article said. The article talks about how we're a designer society that designs our clothes, designs our food, and our lifestyles in a way that brings satisfaction to us.

[52:59] And we curate these on social media. Right? We curate our style, we curate our food, and we take pictures of it, and we put it out there, and you can copy this style, and you can do this, and all this other stuff.

[53:21] And increasingly, it said, we are designing the idea of God. We are making up God as we go. This is what George Barna said.

[53:34] Here's what we can say about Americans today. They say, I believe in God. They say, I believe the Bible is a good book. Right? So we think, ah, they're with us.

[53:47] These are fellow believers in the gospel, because they believe in God, and they believe in the Bible. And then they believe whatever they want to think. they are allowed to hold contradictory thoughts in their mind, and not have a problem with it.

[54:06] So I believe in God. I believe in the good book. But I can do my sexuality how I want. I don't have to do it God's way.

[54:21] I believe in God. I believe in the Bible. I believe the Bible is true. But I can do sexuality. I can do money.

[54:34] I can do lifestyle. I can make it whatever I want it to be. Because I believe in God.

[54:45] So I'm good with God. Now I can just go live how I want. And that's what we're dealing with. In a society today that says, hey, I can do marriage however I want to.

[55:00] I can do gender however I want to. Even though I believe in God and I believe in the Bible. Come on.

[55:15] I just make him out to be whatever I want him to be. And whatever it is I want to do. And I'm good with God. Isn't that special?

[55:31] That's American Christianity. Not all. I don't want to throw the baby out with the bath water. But it's too many. Too many who wear the label of Christian.

[55:47] There was just recently an article about a woman who came out of pornography because she put her faith in Christ. And she was celebrated all over.

[55:58] Oh, I'm a Christian now and baptism video and oh, it's wonderful. Well, she just went back into the porn industry. While also declaring that it's not a contradiction to her faith in Christ.

[56:11] What? So what was it? Was it genuine to begin with? Was it real? real? Or is she going to continue to live her life in discipline under the discipline of God as a result of her choices?

[56:28] We don't know. Because you can't tell what a person who chooses to live that way, whether they are sincere, whether they're genuine, whether it's not, whether it was fake, whether it was deceived, we just, we don't know.

[56:44] we don't know. Let me get through the rest of these. The kinds of expectations that we should have, I'm going to give these to you real quick. We have orders from the king to get to work.

[57:01] We have orders from the king to get to work for his coming kingdom. And we see that again, and I pointed this out before, the things that he said before he went into Jerusalem, telling about the parable of the ten minas and the instructions, the orders that he had given to those stewards, that's you and I, until he comes.

[57:24] Secondly, obedience to his commands, even when it doesn't make sense. So when our world says, what's wrong with living together before you get married? Nothing wrong with that. Just go ahead and do it.

[57:36] Be fine. Have sex before you get married. You know, just have sex with whoever you want. And the Bible is contradictory to that. No, you obey God even though it might not make sense to what the world is teaching us to do.

[57:55] Here's number three. After all that Jesus has done, oh, I'm still stuck on scripture here. That's a terrible thing for me to say, stuck on scripture. After all that Jesus has done, how can we respond?

[58:12] But to be generous. And this is a reference to their cloaks. They just offered something that was precious to them and offered it to God in their worship.

[58:25] And then number four, even through their flawed understanding, they offered praise to God. And from this Romans 12, 1 and 2, therefore, I urge you brothers and sisters in view of God's mercy to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God.

[58:45] He's talking about an act of worship at the temple, a sacrifice that's laid there at the altar. altar. And now he's telling us to offer our own selves as a living sacrifice, which is your true and proper worship.

[59:02] Don't be controlled by the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. And let me say this, that the highest form of worship is obedience, which goes all the way back to King David.

[59:23] To obey is better than sacrifice from 1 Samuel 15. To heed is better than the fat, the fat of rams, offering that sacrifice. And then last point this morning, Jesus came not to set up his kingdom, but to die and to pay the penalty for our sin.

[59:45] He's coming again, by the way. He's coming again and he's going to set up his kingdom. And we don't know when that will be. I believe it will be someday soon and we need to be ready and we need to be prepared for that day.

[59:59] But until then, we need to be busy doing his work. Jesus came to pay the penalty for our sin. And what was obvious in this text is they didn't get it.

[60:13] They didn't get it. And what's obvious today is that many people in our world today don't get it either. They don't get it.

[60:24] would that you even you had known on this day the things that make for peace.

[60:47] But for so many people it's still hidden from their eyes. things. And let me say there's two groups of people here. There's one group of people that we normally think of that want nothing to do with Christianity, want nothing to do with Christ, and they're just not interested at all.

[61:06] There's another group of people that might even wear the label of Christian. That might even call upon the name of Jesus Christ. Christ. They're worshiping the right king, but they believe in their wrong kingdom.

[61:25] And they have expectations of him. And oftentimes what happens in prosperity gospel, when things don't happen, when things don't come out the way that they're supposed to, they end up becoming discouraged and walk away.

[61:40] it's one of the things that you'll notice with these prosperity gospel preachers when they go and have their events at these stadiums. All the cameras are on all the people who are coming and are up front and all the staged things that are meant to show how wonderful things are.

[61:57] But you don't have any of the cameras that are at the back of the room watching the people leave discouraged because they're not even allowed to go up front. Their injury, their illness is too severe.

[62:08] They're not even going to address it. And they're dismissed to go and be discouraged and be defeated. That's not Christianity. That's not Christianity.

[62:21] And so we need to have eyes that discern what is right and what is true and understand the times that we're living in. That's the command that we have to understand the times that we're living in.

[62:36] Let's pray. Lord, thank you so much for this story, this event that teaches us where we stand in light of your kingdom.

[62:54] And for us, your kingdom is yet to come. For us who are believers in Christ, we have a foretaste of it. a little sample of what your kingdom is like when we trust in Christ as Savior and your Holy Spirit takes up residence within us and we get a sense of your presence and the peace that comes and the assurance and what blessings those are.

[63:22] Lord, there's so much more that we will have in the kingdom and we look forward to that day and we know it's coming.

[63:40] Thank you for that promise that you are coming again and you are going to make all things right. You're going to make all things new. what a day that will be.

[63:53] I pray for those who have not yet trusted in Christ as Savior. I pray that today that they would recognize their need of a Savior because of their sin and that they would willingly recognize that they are lost and without hope without Christ.

[64:15] But that you came and you died on that cross and you rose again from the dead and you paid that penalty for our sin. If we would just trust you, if we would just believe in you, trust you with our lives.

[64:32] Thank you for the promise of eternal life. I pray for those who are caught up in a prosperity type of religion that preaches that they can have all of the promises of the kingdom in the here and now.

[64:48] health and wealth and all of this. And here in the United States, we're exporting this evil and dangerous message overseas into places like India, South America, Africa, where people there are buying it whole hog and being deceived as a result of it.

[65:21] Lord, I pray that you would purge our nation and our world of this false gospel, of this false religion and help us cling to you.

[65:36]  Lord, we trust you. We thank you. We love you. In Jesus' name. Amen.