Luke 19:28-48 Basingstoke Palm Sunday 16th March 2008
If only you knew
We usually think of Palm Sunday as a really happy time
All the waving palm branches, shouts of Hosanna! Cheers, Celebration.
So it’s a surprise to read in v41-42 that Jesus was in tears!!
"As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it 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.
This bit about Jesus weeping over the city is only mentioned by Luke’s Gospel
And I believe it’s very significant
As Jesus journeyed over the Mount of Olives to Jerusalem,
He’d have come to a turn in the road with a view of the walls of the city,
He’d also have seen the streets of people, busy markets, people hassled and harassed, disturbed people, people with burdens and fears, worries
He saw thousands of people with no peace of mind. So He weeps.
He could also see the glittering towers and the spacious courtyards of Solomon’s golden Temple with smoke rising from sacrifices, people following traditions and rules of religion.
He sees people striving and no matter how hard they try never being sure
if they’re good enough for God, never sure of God’s acceptance.
He sees People busy climbing ladders that don’t reach far enough or high enough!
People with no peace in their hearts. So He weeps.
I believe Jesus would weep over our town were He to walk over the hill from Farleigh and look over the 1000s of houses and offices of our town.
He’d see people frantically busy, lives under pressure of time at home, at work
People lacking inward peace – very materialistic, and totally alienated from God
People with no assurance about the future, no freedom from guilt.
He’d say to the people of Basingstoke
If only you knew this day what would bring you peace - but you don’t.
If only you knew me - The Messiah who gives peace but you don’t.
Instead Jesus was rejected, despised, scorned ignored, shut out
Today in our increasingly secular society there is no room for Him either!
Some of you here this morning lack peace because you’ve also shut Jesus out!
But on Palm Sunday Jesus time had come to put his cards on the table
Publicly to reveal that he was the Messiah - Chosen by God to bring peace
As always the choice is left open for you to decide - Do you accept or reject Him?
To those who accept Him peace is given
In OT days the word Messiah meant "Anointed one"
Kings were anointed - remember David anointed by Samuel
Priests and Prophets were also anointed - think of Aaron
Jesus comes as God’s Anointed One - King Prophet and Priest
On Palm Sunday He reveals himself in these 3 ways
1. IF ONLY YOU’D KNOWN JESUS AS KING!
Story is so familiar - He sent disciples for a colt with the pre agreed password "The Lord has need of it" and they were told to bring it and set him upon it.
This is sheer drama - Street theatre at its best as Jesus acts out His message
Publicly by doing this He’s saying so clearly "I am King!"
It took courage - we know there was a warrant out for Jesus arrest (Jhn 11)
The Crowds see disciples laying coats at Jesus feet as a carpet
Reminder to them of Coronation of King Jehu - OT King for whom coats were laid
This is a statement there is Royalty coming! A King is to be crowned!
The words the crowd of disciples us are all borrowed from Psalm 118 -
v38 Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord!
Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!
Jesus is king! But what sort of a king is he??
Here he is in home made robes, Riding a Donkey, hardly a royal stallion!!
And what courtiers?! Fishermen! Tax collectors, hailed by a mob of peasants!
This must surely be some sort of a joke!!!
It would be like seeing the Queen visiting Basingstoke on a Bike instead of stepping from a Rolls Royce! Can you imagine it? How undignified? How inappropriate!!
But listen- this is no earthly king.
Earlier 19:11 people thought He was going to become King now! He’d told them a parable to show first He would go away and then return as King!
However we do see some clues as to the kind of King Jesus was..
i) Jesus is a King with Power
v37 disciples began joyfully to praise God in a loud voice for the miracles they’d seen"
I guess there were many in the crowd who had reason to thank God for Jesus power
Only just up the road Bartimaeus had been given his sight (18:35f)
Bart had heard Jesus words "Receive your sight: your faith has healed you"
In Bethany just a few days before Jesus had arrived to find Lazarus dead
You know the story he went to the tomb and commanded "Lazarus come out!"
Jesus the Messiah comes with power! Power to heal, to give sight, to raise the dead!
Hadn’t Jesus reassured John the Baptist when He asked Him are you the Messiah?
Jesus reminded John how OT prophecy was being fulfilled (Mat 11:4f)
When Messiah came the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life and good news is preached to the poor?!
What amazing power The Power of God at work in him and through him
This same Jesus meets you and me this morning with His power to heal, His power to change you, His power to bring you good news, His power to give you new life!
Q? Will you receive Him as King and Lord let His power touch your life?
ii) Jesus the King of Peace
v38 The crowds sing "Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!"
Jesus was not a worldly king fighting earthly battles
He didn’t come to bring Revolution, to over throw Rome, to sign a treaty on earth
He came to make peace in heaven! Why?
Because men and women like us are alienated from God by our sin
Sin = Our failure to live right, our Failure to follow our makers instructions
Sin = Our failure to worship God who created us to live for Him
God made you to enjoy knowing Him, to share your life with Him and obey Him
But you haven’t done that - None of us have – we’ve all failed
Not one of us has kept the Command to Love God with all heart, mind and strength
We’ve all failed! We’re all guilty before God! None of us is exempt from guilt.
The trouble for us is that God is just and holy He can’t ignore our guilt- He hates sin
His word tells us "God can’t leave the guilty unpunished"
There can be no peace for any of us until the debt of our sin is settled
There can be no peace until the wrong in our lives is put right
There can be no peace until the violation of God’s laws has been punished
Q? Do you want to know the Good News? Jesus came to deal with it all!
Jesus came as King - Messiah to bring us peace! But Peace at a price!
That’s why He was heading for Jerusalem not running the other way!
That’s why he was riding into hostility hatred, violence rejection - crucifixion!
The innocent son of God was going to face the death penalty for you and me
He the Messiah was to die, not for His own sin for He had none – totally innocent!
He was going to die for the sins of people like you and me!
Isaiah 53 sums it up "He was pierced - wounded for our transgressions” = rebellion = crossing the line. He was crushed for our iniquity = our perversity our moral failure. The punishment that brought us peace was laid on Him!" Hallelujah!!
Do you welcome Jesus as King? As the Powerful King who can transform our lives and as the King of Peace who brings us forgiveness and peace with God?
Have you accepted that Good News message yet? Do you believe it?
Have you in faith turned to Christ and accepted His gift of pardon?
Peace in heaven - peace in your heart with God!
Long before Palm Sunday prophet Zechariah wrote these words
See your King comes to you, righteous having salvation, gentle and lowly, riding on a donkey
Having Salvation – He is bringing with Him the Gift of peace with God – for you!
Bringing God’s gift to every man or woman who confesses their sin and trusts Him.
Jesus wept "If only you knew the things that would bring you peace"
But sadly the city wasn’t prepared to receive their King they crucified Him!
Jesus heart broke as He saw them all - unwilling to turn and believe Him
Today Jesus looks out at this town and weeps
He looks at this congregation - Do you make Him weep? Are you rejecting Him as King?
Are you turning away His peace and forgiveness?
Are you refusing His power that can raise your from death to new life?
Isaiah "There is no peace for the wicked" There is none for the unforgiven!
2. IF ONLY YOU’D KNOWN JESUS AS PRIEST
Jesus role as Messiah was not only King but also as Priest.
A Priest offers sacrifices to cleanse sin and opens the door into God’s presence
Another OT prophet Malachi had foretold in 3:1 "Suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple. Who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when He appears. For He will be like a refiners fire- He will purify removing all corruption and impurity.
On Palm Sunday Jesus fulfilled these words by entering the Temple
He entered the place of worship that he found was full of corruption
The Courts were full of buyers and sellers over charging on perfect animals for sacrifice having a monopoly every animal approved. They charged what they liked.
Money changers charged extortionate rates for Temple money for the Shekel Tax
Jesus was so angry! The Temple was being abused, the worship there was corrupted,
Temple turned into a cavern of thieves like the hills to Jericho!
His holy anger burned as He started turning them all out
He met people who were enraged by his actions – as he met with their hard hearts
These People weren’t willing for him to deal with them, they resisted the purifying zeal with which He came.
Jesus wept over the city their hard unrepentant hearts
He wept over their materialism and their misplaced priorities,
He wept over their dishonesty and their cheating, and complete lack of reverence for God.
He wept over the things that had taken the place of the Worship God desired.
And sadly Jesus weeps today over the same things –
He weeps when he sees us resisting Him
He weeps when we refuse to accept His discipline in our lives
He weeps at materialism a substitute that’s has taken the place of true worship
He weeps when He sees our lives intended to be Temples of His Spirit devoted to dishonesty, cheating, lies with no compassion for others.
He weeps when instead of worship offered in the temple of our hearts
He has been squeezed out by our love for so many other things.
He weeps to see God squeezed out by the buyers and sellers of your own sinful nature.
There’ll be no peace in your heart until you let Jesus the Priest enter His temple and cleanse you from sin.
Invite Him in to take His rightful place this Easter time. Look to the Cross.
I suspect in the Temple, the next day the traders were back on their stalls
No doubt it was Business as usual
But in our lives there can be no permit for the traders to return!
To Repent means to break the Will – Come in submission to God - No peace until you do.
3. IF ONLY YOU KNEW JESUS AS PROPHET
A prophet is someone who speaks God’s word.
As Jesus wept over the city he says If only you heard it then you’d know peace.
On that Palm Sunday Jesus spoke prophetically
In v39 Some Pharisees urged Jesus to rebuke his disciples for praising him and carrying on as they were.
Jesus replies v40 "I tell you, if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out!"
I always took that to mean that the stones will praise me if the people can’t
But in fact its a quote from Habakkuk 2:11
Time of Jeremiah before Babylon invaded - context is one of judgment
You have plotted the ruin of many peoples, shaming your own house and forfeiting your life. The stones of the wall will cry out, and the beams of the woodwork will echo it. "Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed and establishes a town by crime!
Jesus is not saying "If you silence them, the stones will praise me"
but "Silence them and the walls will cry in judgement against you!"
That also fits in with Jesus words in v 43-44
v43 "The days will come when your enemies will build an embankment against you & encircle you & hem you in on every side. They’ll dash you to the ground, you & the children within your walls. They’ll not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you."
"..because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you."
The city refused to hear God speaking or recognise Jesus coming
They wouldn’t accept Him as their King as Priest or as Prophet
The facts verify Jesus words for 40 years on this prophecy of Jesus was fulfilled in detail
When Jerusalem came under siege for 5 months by the Romans
City encircled by siege works – it was utterly destroyed except the wailing wall.
1000s were killed - strong taken to fight the gladiators in victory celebrations
They rejected Jesus and became blind - God could no longer get through to them.
Just as Jesus wept then I believe Jesus also weeps for some of you here today
If only you knew what would bring peace and forgiveness
If only you knew Jesus as King who brings salvation, offers peace & forgiveness,
If only you knew the King whose power can raise you from death to new life?
If only you knew Him as Priest who cleanses your life and leads you to God
But you won’t! And if you won’t then the same Prophetic word comes to you
If you don’t cry out then the stones will cry out! Against you!!!
If you go on rejecting Christ, silencing His praise you will face His judgement too!
This Palm Sunday should be an occasion of joyful praise and celebration
But in the midst of it all Jesus weeps bitterly over those who reject him as Messiah
Q? Does He weep for you refusing to acknowledge Him as King?
Q? Weeping for refusing to let Him cleanse the temple of your heart?
Q? Will you listen this morning to this prophetic warning? Take heed! Turn!
