Don't Stop Cheering For Jesus

Intro: being someone who loves sports I have one pet peeve. I don’t like

cheering all through a game. Once in a while I might stand and cheer, but not for the entire game. My biggest gripe is when your team is getting killed and the cheerleaders have you stand up and say, victory. Maybe they should do a cheer like, man are those other guys good. Or embarrassing, that is what this is. Cheering is part of sports, but in the Bible we have a scene where people cheered for Jesus. The problem is that the same group that was cheering for him one day, was the group screaming at him a few days later. Today, we will look to see why the cheering stopped and give you the encouragement, Don’t Ever Stop Cheering For Jesus

Don’t Ever Stop Cheering For Jesus

Luke 19:28-44

I. They Didn’t Understand the Plan—verses 37-38 here is one of the first reasons that people don’t keep cheering for Jesus, they don’t understand the plan and purpose of God.

· They liked the miracles and power---they liked that Jesus was strong and powerful and did many miracles among them. Many times we see this today, our relationship to God is based on experiences, emotions and desiring the blessings of God. But when Jesus was explaining that He would die, that those who enter into the Kingdom of God would face trials and suffering, they didn’t like the plan

· They wanted a King to take over the world—they wanted Jesus to overthrow the government, they hated Roman power and wanted Jesus to do away with Rome and set up heaven on earth. But that wasn’t God’s plan, Jesus told them that they should go the extra mile, give to Caesar what belong to Caesar, and give to God what belonged to God.

· The plan was too simple—Jesus was going to do the work, people just needed to accept His work, accept Him into their lives, and they would be born again. But man likes working his way to heaven, earning a spot in glory, so the whole plan became a stumblingblock to the Jews, foolishness to the Greeks. Today it is still the same, most religion is works based, not faith based.

We live in a world today that won’t cheer for Jesus because they don’t understand the plan of God. They don’t like the preaching of the cross, it is an offense to them.

II. They Didn’t Like the Price—you have to read the rest of the chapters on the teachings of Jesus during His passion. But up to this point most people only knew miracles, wonderful teachings on heaven, and Jesus loving the people that others rejected. But Jesus begins to share that you have to take up your cross, you have to die to the flesh, you have to love Him with all your heart, and the more they heard about a life of sacrifice the less they cheered. His disciples even came to Him and said, do you not realize that you are making the religious leaders mad with you.

· We stop cheering when it moves from feeling to sacrifice. We love Jesus when He tells us about all the good things of heaven, but when he tells us that we will pass through the fire, we will have winds and waves come against the house, we stop cheering.

· We stop cheering when serving the Lord is going to cost us more than we wanted to pay. We stop dancing and waving our palm branches when Jesus says, love your enemies, pray for those who hate you, blessed are the poor in Spirit.

· At one point many started walking away from Him and He asked the disciples are you going to leave me too? It is tough to go from the most popular group in town, to the most despised group in the same week. One of the things that some people don’t understand about ministry, as long as you are doing what someone wants you to do, they will cheer you, but start telling them things they don’t like to hear, and they will pick up stones.

III. The Didn’t Realize the Penalties—v.41-44 are some of the most sobering verses in the Bible. Jesus visualized A.D. 70 when Rome would destroy Jerusalem and kill nearly a million Jews. I am sure that if the people could see the consequences of rejecting Christ, they would have all gladly paid the price of following Him to the cross. But their eyes were blinded and probably most people thought, it is no big deal to reject Jesus.

· The cheering stops because we don’t realize the magnitude of the moment. When someone gets saved, for many it seems to be no big deal, but the Word of God says it is a snatching from the fire and saving a soul from hell. It is a big deal, it makes all the angels rejoice, it is so great that compared to the entire world, a soul is more valuable to God.