THE WEEPING KING
Luke 19.41-44
S: Palm Sunday
C: Royalty, kingship, sovereignty
Pr: Jesus weeps when we do not recognize Him as Messiah-King.
CV: We will relentlessly reach out to people with the life-changing message of Jesus Christ..
I. CONFUSION
II. DESTRUCTION
III. REJECTION
PA: How is the change to be observed?
• Honor Him as your Lord and King.
• Grieve the ignorance of those that are lost.
• Direct people to Jesus as Messiah-King.
Version: ESV
RMBC 5 April 09 AM
ILL Personal
Many years ago, when JJ was about ten and we were living in PA, JJ and I had gone to a high school soccer game to watch one of our high schoolers play. He sat with me for a while with a family from the church, but after a while, he decided to go to the top of the bleachers for a better view. I kept looking up there from time to time to make sure he was all right.
It was a particularly cold day, and JJ had taken his arms out of the sleeves and put them inside his jacket to stay warmer. At halftime, I turned around to signal for him to come down and sit with me, and as I turned, he had slipped through the bleachers. He had lost his balance and since he has tucked his harms inside the jacket, he could not grab anything and he fell twenty feet to the ground.
You can imagine the immediate panic I felt. I knew that was a long fall and I knew there was plenty of concrete he could have landed on. It was a sick feeling that I had as I ran down the bleachers, literally knocking people down yelling for someone to call 911.
When I reached JJ, I found him unconscious, laying on a small patch of very soft ground covered with grass. It was a narrow patch surrounded by concrete. Very quickly, the rescue squad was there, JJ started coming to, and soon, he and I were in an ambulance heading to the hospital.
As you can tell, he survived, and we know that God was watching over him. But there is one more thing I want to share about this story…
Later that evening, we returned home from the hospital after several tests to make sure there was no internal damage. I remember going to bed that night, and something unexpected happened. I started to sob – uncontrollably. All the emotions of the day had begun to catch up to me, because I realized I had almost lost my son. My heart ached because of the potential loss.
Have you ever unexpectedly started to cry?
It was as if you could not control it.
The emotions just took over.
It occurred to me as I was studying this week that the way I felt may have been similar to the way Jesus felt in the passage we are studying today.
You see…
Jesus has ridden toward Jerusalem as the Messiah-King.
He has come on the foal of a donkey.
It is the fulfillment of the prophecy found in Zechariah 9.
And the people have recognized it.
They are yelling, “Hosanna!”
“Save us!”
“Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!”
They are waving palms.
The people are going crazy with enthusiasm.
They are laying their cloaks down on his path.
They are, in kind, “rolling out the red carpet” for Him.
Their King as arrived.
Their longtime hopes are being satisfied.
The Messiah has come, as God has promised.
But for a moment, Jesus stops the procession.
The city is before Him.
And…
He stands before the city as Lord and King, and weeps.
He sobs.
This is His city.
These are His subjects.
He is the King who comes in the name of the Lord.
But…
There will be no reign in Jerusalem.
No peace.
No justice.
No coronation day.
He has one week to live, and it will not be lived like a king
Here He stands before Jerusalem, and He weeps.
He weeps for people, not for Himself.
He cries, because this city will not recognize Him for who He is.
He comes as Savior, Lord, and King.
But they will not see it, and already, it was too late!
For He knows what is before Him on what we call…
Passion Week
Sunday – Messianic Entry into Jerusalem
We often call this the Triumphant Entry, but I have chosen to call it the Messianic Entry because He comes into Jerusalem as the Messiah-King.
Monday – Cleansing the temple
On Monday, He will once again cleanse the temple.
Tuesday – Controversies with the Jewish leaders
On Tuesday, the controversies with the Jewish leaders will have them all the more determined to kill Jesus.
They set their devious plan in motion.
Wednesday – Apparent day of rest
We have no recorded action on Wednesday.
Thursday – Preparation for Passover
Thursday, everything is set in motion.
Preparations for a Passover meal are set up.
Jesus washes their feet.
They eat the meal, and head off to the Garden of Gethsemane.
Friday – Trial and Crucifixion
That evening, Jesus is arrested in the garden, after being betrayed by Judas Iscariot.
He is put through a mock trial.
He is sentenced to death and crucified cruelly on a cross.
Just before the day ends, He is placed in a sealed tomb.
Saturday – A day of silence
A day of silence is on Saturday as the disciples go into hiding.
Then the joy comes!
Sunday – Resurrection!
It is Resurrection Day!
But we already get ahead of ourselves.
OUR STUDY:
Luke 19:41-44
And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”
Note first the…
CONFUSION
See…
Jerusalem was to be a place of peace.
But it was not.
He should have been not only welcomed as the Messiah, but followed as well.
But Jesus is a king that is coming to a rebellious city.
It is a hotbed of resistance against His rightful authority.
He is the King that is willing to make peace, but only on His own terms.
But the problem was that…
Sin had caused hearts to be hard.
They were missing the truth because they had hardened their hearts.
Jesus weeps because they will have the very truth before them, and in their confusion, they will refuse to listen.
I want you to note this about sin this morning.
Sin is your number one problem in your life.
Sin separates you from God.
It separates you from others.
It does nothing except cause you to be in pain and cause pain in others.
It does nothing except cause you to be confused about what is true.
Is your heart hard?
You will miss the truth.
You will miss Jesus knocking on your heart’s door.
And here is the problem with that…
DESTRUCTION
Over and over again…
Jerusalem was a place of unmet potential.
As Jesus stands there weeping, He looks into the future of His subjects, and it is all bad news.
It is a future of fear.
It is a future of destruction.
It is a future of death.
The translations all use the language of violence.
Jerusalem’s people will be dashed, smashed and crushed.
Because their rebellion is wicked and outrageous in God’s eyes, He will allow the Romans to besiege and destroy Jerusalem (AD 66).
Instead of being a place of peace, once again, Jerusalem will fail to meet her potential.
You see, what is true for Jerusalem is also true for us…
We are destined for destruction when we do not make peace with the King.
God is grieved when we sin.
He weeps, because He knows what it does to us.
Our rebellion keeps the potential relationship from occurring.
But God is not willing that any perish.
He does not delight in the death of the wicked.
He does not want destruction.
And this is why Jesus stood there weeping.
He was going to the cross because He loves each one of us.
He was going to the cross so that you and I could have a personal relationship with Him.
He was going to the cross so that you and I can experience eternal joy.
But He weeps, because Jerusalem would reject Him.
He weeps, because some of us still reject Him.
REJECTION
Jerusalem kept spurning their given opportunities.
He came close to the ones He desperately wanted to help, but they would not receive His help.
They wanted to be delivered from the Romans.
Jesus wanted to deliver them from their sin.
They wanted a king to sit on David’s throne.
Jesus wanted to sit on the thrones of their hearts.
They wanted to experience political freedom.
Jesus wanted them to experience spiritual freedom.
They wanted Him to establish His earthly kingdom.
Jesus, instead, came to establish His spiritual kingdom.
So, Jesus draws near to the city of Jerusalem, stops and He weeps.
He weeps because as He draws near we don’t feel the thrill of His presence.
He weeps because as He draws near He sees our pious words, but knows we reject Him in our hearts.
He weeps because He knows we live by our wits, and not by faith.
He weeps because He knows we are motivated by our dislikes and not by love.
He weeps because we are anxious and fretful, instead of confident in His love.
He weeps because of our sinfulness.
He weeps, but yet, and let us rejoice in this, He rides on into the city.
He rides on into the city of Jerusalem.
CHALLENGE:
Jesus weeps when we do not recognize Him as Lord and King.
I wonder how many churches He weeps over.
He looks at His people and they sound like they know Him.
They look like they know Him.
They are even doing religious things for him.
Yet, there He stands crying.
For the people do not know Him as the Messiah-King.
Could that be describing you today?
Let me encourage you to…
Honor Him as your Lord and King.
As we came into worship today, it was our goal to agree with those that celebrated with the arrival into Jerusalem.
We have the wonderful benefit of hindsight.
We can shout “Hosanna in the highest” and appreciate its meaning to a much fuller extent than they ever could.
I encourage you to honor Him right now.
Jesus is Lord!
Do it now while you can willingly, because this is where the difference is.
As the apostle Paul has written (Philippians 2.9-11)…
Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
ILL Jesus (S)
One Sunday morning, a man woke up around 5 a.m., his wife and children still asleep. Glad to have time to himself, he went downstairs, brewed some coffee, and began to read the morning paper. Three sentences into an article, he saw his five-year-old daughter descending the stairs.
He said, "Honey, go back to bed."
"But I’m not sleepy," she insisted.
Determined to read his paper, he again urged her to go back to bed. Again, she told him she was not tired.
Looking down at the newspaper, he conceived a plan. In the paper was a picture of the world, which he cut into several pieces. Handing his daughter some Scotch tape, he instructed her, "Go sit in the dining room, and see if you can put the world back together."
His daughter accepted the challenge, and he went back to the kitchen to finish his coffee and read the paper. After only a few sips of his coffee, though, his daughter came bounding into the kitchen. "Here, Daddy, I’m finished!" she said, showing him the picture of the world put back together.
Amazed, he asked, "Sweetie, how did you do that so fast?"
She replied, "It was easy, Daddy. On the back side of the page was a picture of a man. When you make the man right, you make the world right."
Similarly…
Only Jesus can bring order to this world.
Only Jesus can bring order to my life and your life.
For, when we have the relationship with Jesus right, everything else is right..
If you have confidence today that you know Jesus as Your Lord and Savior, understand that being like Jesus is to…
Grieve the ignorance of those that are lost.
Do you share Jesus’ heart?
Do you grieve for people who are ignoring His offer of peace, persisting in rebellion, and living in apathy?
Or do you just think, “to hell with ‘em?”
Do you despise them, or pray for them?
Do you avoid them, or offer the love of Jesus to them?
God is giving us the opportunity, this very week, to…
Direct people to a relationship with Jesus.
Spirituality will be on their mind.
This is a great time to connect with people on how Jesus loves them!
This is a great time of the year to direct people toward the One who weeps for them.
Please speak, for as Jesus said…
If we keep quiet, the stones will cry out..
Let’s not make them do the job that is clearly ours.
For Further Study: Genesis 50.24; Isaiah 49.8; Jeremiah 6.6; Ezekiel 4.1-3; Zechariah 9.9; Mark 10.45; Luke 1.68, 13.34, 17.20-21; John 1.11-12; Romans 1.18; Philippians 2.9-11
BENEDICTION:
Maoto first spelling bee in NYS
Spring Cleaning
Devotional
Open Forum – nothing secret
Maundy Thursday, Resurrection breakfast
Now to him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy — to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.
RESOURCES:
SermonCentral
Brubaker, Doane To Honor the King
DeWitt, David Is Jesus Still Weeping?
Hathaway, Alvin, Sr. The City that Makes God Cry
Huson, Andrew How Much Are People Worth to You
Morford, Jeremy The Time of Thy Visitation
Piper, John O That You Knew the Terms of Peace!
Rogers, Matthew A Sort of Homecoming
Smith, Duane Why Are You Weeping Jesus?
Rest
Calvin, John. Calvin’s Commentaries. 22 vols, ed. The Calvin Translation Society. Edinburgh, Scotland, 1843.
Keener, Craig S. The Ivp Bible Background Commentary: New Testament. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993.
Wiersbe, Warren W. The Bible Exposition Commentary: New Testament. Colorado Springs: ChariotVictor Publishing, 1989.
