Jesus Wept

Good morning everyone

Let’s just praise the Lord!

Let’s lift up the name of Jesus. No matter where you are at in your journey of life, if you will lift up the name of Jesus, He will draw close to you this morning. Amen.

If you would turn to Luke 19:28-44 Read clearly and slowly

Prayer-

On this sacred Sunday, we look at Palm Sunday and you coming into Jerusalem to begin your final journey to the cross. We pause and are grateful for your faithfulness for us to experience salvation. We are thankful that as you went to the cross that you had each of us on your mind and your desire is that no one be left out of eternity. Help us to weep over our Jerusalem to see those that need you and what part we would play in their lives.

Introduction

Here we are the week before Easter. Moving ourselves into what is called the Passion Week. Jesus wants to speak to us this morning- He desires for us to experience Him fresh and new. Fresh if you are a believer and new if you have never given your life over to him. There will always be people looking on the outside looking in and there will always be people who are “gonna” come to Jesus”. Jesus is speaking to both in this passage.

The Davinchi Code book and movie are fictional-

Jesus did not marry Mary Magdalene.

He did not have any children from her. She did not move to France to raise the children.

I know this because of faithful eyewitnesses that proclaimed and recorded all the events.

If my Bible does not say it, I will not take the word of a movie producer.

Between what happens Palm Sunday to Easter has changed the world- no matter if we accept it or not.

You will have to do something with Jesus today- you will not after today be able to say I didn’t know.

Illustration-

Like most kids in High School, when my name was called on graduation, I walked across a stage and grabbed a cover pad with nothing in it and then received my diploma in the mail a few weeks later. There were some that did the same thing but they had not completed the requirements and they had to go to Summer school before receiving their diploma.

Some were going through the motions and only they knew the truth.

Life without Jesus is going through the motions - your cover pad is empty and without Jesus it does not mean a thing!

All the gospels record the account of Jesus coming into Jerusalem for the final week of ministry on this earth.

John 12:12

“The next day the crowd that had come for the festival heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the king of Israel!”

“The hour has come for the Son of man to be glorified. Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it produces only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. Anyone who loves his life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves must follow me, and where I am, my servants also will be. My Father will honor the one who serve me.”

Jesus gives final instructions to his disciples as he makes final preparation to go to the cross and complete the task that our Heavenly Father had given him.

The conspiracy against Jesus had been building for years- They attempted to arrest him early/ They tried to kill him before he gets to the cross/ They lied/ They tried to use him as a political tool/ BUT THEY COULD NOT STOP THE PLAN OF REDEMPTION.

The religious Pharisees were a threat to many people. They did not know what to do with Jesus because he claimed to be “The Son of God”

He upset the business world- he turned the tables on corruption in the temple and the greed of the money changers.

He called the religious big shots vipers! White washed tombs.

He won all debates on the Word of God.

Some loved Him and some hated Him-

All had to do something with Jesus. No one can be neutral with Jesus- a car out of gear will always fall backwards. If you are not moving forward, you are drifting backwards.

If Passion Week is only a story you read once a year- you have not met the Son of Man and Lord Jesus Christ- you have no celebration of Easter. You have no power in your life.