April 14, 2019 Palm Sunday After Jesus had said this, He went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. 29 As He

Transcription

1 April 14, 2019 Palm Sunday After Jesus had said this, He went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. 29 As He approached Bethphage and Bethany at the hill called the Mount of Olives, He sent two of His disciples, saying to them, 30 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. 31 If anyone asks you, Why are you untying it? say, The Lord needs it. 32 Those who were sent ahead went and found it just as He had told them. 33 As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, Why are you untying the colt? 34 They replied, The Lord needs it. 35 They brought it to Jesus, threw their cloaks on the colt and put Jesus on it. 36 As He went along, people spread their cloaks on the road. 37 When He came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen:38 Blessed is the King Who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in Heaven and glory in the highest! 39 Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, Teacher, rebuke Your disciples! 40 I tell you, He replied, if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out. 41 As He approached Jerusalem and saw the city, He wept over it, 42 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. 43 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. 44 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 recognize the time of God s coming to you. 45 When Jesus 1

2 entered the temple courts, He began to drive out those who were selling. 46 It is written, He said to them, My house will be a house of prayer; but you have made it a den of robbers. 47 Every day He was teaching at the temple. But the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the leaders among the people were trying to kill Him. 48 Yet they could not find any way to do it, because all the people hung on His words. About 60 years ago CBS tried a new format for one of their television shows. Here s how it worked. Each week CBS turned their entire studio into an imaginary TIME MACHINE to take listeners back in in the distant past so they could witness historical events. The anchor of the show was a familiar broadcaster in my day. His name was Walter Cronkite and the show was entitled, YOU ARE THERE! The first telecast was in It was a re-enaction of the Hindenburg disaster which happened on May 6, In subsequent episodes the series focused on similar key events in world history portrayed in dramatic recreations. Each show would begin with Walter Cronkite sitting at his familiar anchor desk in New York City and he would give a few words on what was about to happen. An announcer would then give the date and the event, followed by this loud and boldy-spoken sentence say it with me: YOU ARE THERE. Then CBS News Reporters in modern-day suits would comment on the action and interview the protagonist of each of event. Several famous stars had roles in this early TV show. James Caan played Robert Ford in The Capture of Jesse James. Paul Newman played Brutus in The Assassination of Julius Caesar. 2

3 Joanne Woodward who would be Newman s wife for over 50 years had a big part in The Oklahoma Land Rush Every week, at the end of the program after Cronkite summarized what had happened, he would say the same thing. In fact, watch as we see how he ended the show: Well, during this year s HOLY WEEK I d like us to embrace a similar format in the sermon portion of our services. I want us to use not the comments of Cronkite but rather those of first century people who actually WERE there to take us back in time to that first Holy Week. I m talking about the writers of the four Gospels men who used a third of their written accounts of Jesus life and ministry to report on the events of that final week. With the help of their God s inspired reporting I want us to step back in time 2,000 years so that we can be reminded what happened on those days. To borrow from Cronkite I m referring to those eight days UN-like any other days, filled with events that have altered and illuminated our times MORE THAN ANY OTHER. The idea is that we will feel like we were there in the final week of Jesus earthly ministry. Ready okay let s head back to 33A.D to the city of Jerusalem. Jesus has just completed three years of teaching and healing. Crowds multitudes of people followed Him wherever He went. He arrived at a suburb of Jerusalem the village of Bethany which is just two miles east of the city six days before the Passover. According to the Gospel writers, Jesus stayed at the home of three dear friends: Lazarus and his sisters Mary and Martha. This was a good 3

4 choice for lodgings for two reasons. First, all of Jerusalem was packed with Jews coming to celebrate the Passover. Hundreds of thousands of them came from all over the world. Think of it. When Jesus first came into this world the inns of BETHLEHEM were all full with no vacancies and ironically the same could be said about the inns in JERUSALEM that final week so, it was wise indeed to stay in Bethany. A second reason I think Jesus decided to stay where He did is because He knew what lay ahead. Martha, Mary, and Lazarus had been His friends for years. The comfortable nature of old friendships like theirs friendships we studied just a few weeks back was just what He needed as He drew nearer to the cross. In their home He would be able to enjoy the sustaining power of good meals shared with good friends CLOSE friends. Okay that s the setting. That Sunday the FIRST Palm Sunday Jesus had His disciples borrow a donkey a young colt one that had never been ridden. Ironically, this animal that had never carried a burden was carrying the Man Who would bare on His body the full weight of all the sins of all mankind. As Jesus begins his entry down the two-mile road that would eventually lead up into the heart of the city the people present recognize Him. They know of His ministry. They know of His healing power. As Luke reports, the whole began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen. Others had heard of these miracles from eye-witnesses. 4

5 The Word spreads quickly. It s like a match dropped in dry leaves. The entire city turns out to welcome Jesus. His humble entry into the city turns into the first century version of a ticker tape parade. The people welcome Him as they would a conquering king they lay their coats in the road as sort of a crude red carpet, and wave leafy palm branches as He passes shouting, Blessed is the King Who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in Heaven and glory in the highest! Okay if we could somehow transport modern reporters back to that day along with their camera crew what would we see? First, we could see WHO Jesus was and is. We would agree that the crowd was correct in their proclamations. Jesus was IS the long-awaited Messiah. One reason we d say this is because the mode of transportation Jesus was a blatant and unambiguous statement to the world a claim that He was indeed the only Son of God sent to usher in His eternal kingdom. An on the scene reporter might say, Folks, up until this point Jesus has always AVOIDED public acclaim but not anymore. No now He is EMBRACING it. Folks, Secondly, we would see WHAT Jesus was and is LIKE. I say this because, as Luke reports, when Jesus rode into Jerusalem that day, He did a very odd thing. He cried. Some scholars say a better word would be wailed. Do you remember Jesus words from our text? Look at them again. Luke 19:41-44 says, And when He approached, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, If you had known IN THIS DAY, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden 5

6 from your eyes. For the days shall come upon you when your enemies will throw up a bank before you and surround you and hem you in on every side and will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of God s coming to you. Do you wonder what Jesus meant by the phrase, in this day? Well, to answer we need to look at one of those 456 Messianic prophecies. You see, 500 years earlier an angel appeared to the prophet Daniel and told him of certain dramatic events to be marked off on God s timetable events that would affect Israel directly and the surrounding nations indirectly. They would all occur in what is now known as the seventy weeks or 490 years (Daniel 9:24-27). The first week would start with the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem under the decree of the Persian King Artaxerxes, which was done on March 28, 445B.C. Over the next sixty-nine weeks or 483 years, Jerusalem would be restored and rebuilt until the Messiah would come. In Daniel s great prophecy of the 70 weeks, God had revealed the specific time down to the EXACT DAY in which the Messiah would be presented to the nation Israel. Although on that first Palm Sunday the nation was unmindful of the divine timetable Jesus was obviously conscious that this day in which He made His entry into Jerusalem was the specific day foretold by Daniel. He knew everything was right on schedule to the day. But they didn t or WOULDN T see this. Philip Yancey writes, In a nutshell, the Bible from Genesis 3 to Revelation 22 tells the story of a God reckless with desire to get His family back. Jesus embodies the promise of a God Who will go to any length to win us back. 6

7 This leads us to something else we can see as we go back there and look at what happened on that first Palm Sunday. (3) We would see what JESUS came to DO. Now at this point our on-the-scene commentators would ask the cameras to pan up to the Antonia Fortress. As you can see in this picture, t was an impressive building fourteen stories high and it stood right next to the Temple. Six hundred Roman soldiers were on duty there all the time many more during the Passover looking down on the Temple from those high walls. And I m sure the crowds welcoming Jesus expected Him to march up to the gates and with His miraculous power turn them into splinters. Then He d go inside and destroy the Roman force with a word. But instead of doing that, he upsets ta les in the temple and throws the money changers out. Now let me stop and remind you why all those money changers and animal sellers were there. The Law of Moses commanded that every male of Israel must redeem his soul by giving half a shekel as a temple tax. The Jews couldn t bring their Roman or Greek coins into the temple, because such coins had pagan images on them that are blasphemous. Those coins didn t belong in the Temple. So, there was a currency exchange a money-changer. This service wasn t free there was an exchange fee that went into the temple coffers except for a percentage that went directly into the pockets of the high priest s family. The Law of Moses also required the people of God to offer animal sacrifices. If they had traveled a long way to come for Passover, they weren t going to bring their animals with them. 7

8 If they did it would never be judged as good enough. So they would just bring some money and buy an approved animal for their offering after they got to Jerusalem. Prices were a little high, but they could get a bull or lamb or a pair of birds in a wicker basket whatever was needed. Again much of the profits from this business went to the High Priest. Now, these money changers and animal sellers used to be outside the temple out in the Kidron Valley. But when Caiaphas became high priest, he let them move into the temple courtyard. It was much more convenient for him. Well, as the Jewish people had prayed for years, the Messiah did come at Passover to judge the ungodly. But to their shock, he confronted Jewish ungodliness and sin instead of that of the Romans. With His actions Jesus was in essence asking, Who s violating the temple more the Roman soldiers who stand looking down from the ramparts or the high priest and the temple bankers who are making money off of every poor person who comes to pray? And speaking of praying who can talk to God with all that noise?! By using the temple courts in this way these religious Jews are undercutting the very reason the temple exists. They are keeping poor people from worshiping. By the way, Jesus surprising actions fulfilled another Messianic Prophecy. I m referring to Amos who said, Why do you people long for the day of the LORD? That day will be darkness, not light. I despise your religious feasts; I cannot stand your assemblies. Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream! 8

9 The point here is that Jesus came to deal with SIN and sin is found in every heart. Sin is not just found in the speck in your neighbor s eye it s found in that log that is in your own. St. Jerome was one of the early Church Fathers. He is best known for his translation of the Bible from Greek into Latin. In fact, Jerome s translation, known as the Vulgate, served as the official Bible of the church for about a thousand years. Tradition says he translated the Vulgate from the same cave/stable where Jesus was born. It is said that near the end of his life, Jerome had a dream. In the dream, Jesus appeared to him. Jerome was so overwhelmed by the appearance of Jesus that he felt he just had to give Him something, so he got some money and offered it, saying Here! This is yours. Jesus said, I don t want it. Jerome brought some more possessions. But Jesus said, I don t want them either. And Jerome said, If there is anything in the world that I can give You, tell me what it is. Tell me! What do You want? What do You want me to give You? He said he dreamed that Jesus looked at him and said this: Give me your sin. That s what I came for. Jerome s dream wasn t just a dream. It was real because that s why Jesus came into Jerusalem that day. He came to take away our sin. 9