Destiny Is At Hand Series

Destiny Is At Hand

Series: Encountering Jesus (through the Gospel of Luke)

Brad Bailey – January 19, 2020

Series #54 / Luke 19:28 – 44

Intro

Let me begin by asking you to consider this question:

Which is ultimate… disorder or order? (Do you exist merely amidst a material world without transcendent order or purpose? Or do you exist as part of a world in which there is order and purpose that transcends the chaos… an ultimate direction and destiny that is bigger than you?)

Our inner worlds… are shaped by many things….one of those most underlying…and often unconscious… is our sense of order and destiny.

Some have begun to see that the disease of our current cultural soul in light of how human life has located itself in relationship to a higher order. It’s notable that for an extended time, humanity was bound within the many forms of pagan views in which human life was just the pawn of capricious powers and gods. But then a people was called out…which claimed that the one true and living God…the creator of all… was revealing himself… and revealing that God had fashioned the world with order…and that He came in Christ announcing that its destiny was what he called “the kingdom of God”… the ultimate reign and rule of God’s

order and goodness.

From such a discovery of order and common good humanity… began to explore and discover and develop the modern world. But one thing that didn’t go away… was the pride that of human nature. And so humanity began to believe it knew more than it did… controlled more than it did… and it cultivated an independence that declared ourselves the center.

With such pride…we forget how little we actually know and control….and we cast off anything that transcends us.

As many explain our recent modern state…the very claim of being independent beings casts us into isolation and meaninglessness.

This is the growing disease and malaise of our current cultural state.

We may try to find transcendence in the mystery of the arts and music and pleasure… because something of meaning still haunts us… but we are still trapped by being cut off from anything outside the human world. [1a]

Which is ultimate… disorder or order? Is the desire for order just a vain attempt to help us

survive…or does a higher divine order transcend and ultimately lay claim to the disorder we

see?

Today…God speaks into these underlying questions.

He reveals that there is a destiny at hand.

The idea of “destiny” can be used in many ways…but it core meaning is this:

Destiny - an event (or a course of events) that will inevitably happen in the future. An agency determining the future.

As we continue in our extended series of Encountering Jesus in the Gospel of Luke. …we come to a dynamic and defining scene. [1b].

Luke 19:28-44 (NIV)

28 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?' tell him, 'The Lord needs it.'"

At this point …Luke begins his account of Christ entering Jerusalem… and the final week of his incarnate ministry culminating in his crucifixion and resurrection. Luke, like the other Gospel accounts, dedicates a far greater proportion of his Gospel account to this week. [2]

We do well to recognize the significance of this.

It means that we begin a season journeying with Jesus through the final week… in all it’ssignificance. Never have we done so as a community with so much time to really engage each encounter. We are going to engage nearly every dramatic moment week by week through Easter.

Not just Sundays. This also provides something so rich into this season of our Encountering Jesus Groups… as you journey deeper together into this journey with Jesus through what he says to us…and does for us.

It also reveals that this indeed is the defining nature of who he is and what he has done. Jesus himself had just reminded them again… “The Son of Man came to seek and save the lost.”

“The Son of Man came.” He came…the birth of Christ…that is event we celebrate at Christmas. The infinite has entered the world of the finite. The eternal has invaded time.

But to fulfill something…to seek and save what was lost…and that includes us.

This is what Jesus always spoke of. This is what each of Gospels dedicates nearly a third of themselves to sharing…a third to this final one week.