Title: Understanding the Way of Peace
Text: Luke 19:41-44
Date: April 1, 2012
Place: Washington A/G
Introduction
I. Welcome to Palm Sunday
A. Day to commemorate Jesus’ triumphal entry into the city of Jerusalem
B. We call it palm Sunday because the Gospel writers all tell of how the worshippers gathered around Jesus that day and waved palm branches saying, “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!”
C. The Scene and setting
1. Jesus and His disciples were on their way up to Jerusalem to observe the Passover
2. They had been all around the area of Judea doing ministry
a. Teaching the multitudes
b. Calling people into ministry from sycamore trees
c. Healing the blind
3. There are a great number of people now in this Entourage
a. A great deal of fanfare surrounding this moment
b. The people are on a bit of a high from the things they have heard and witnessed.
c. An event so meaningful it was recorded by all the gospel writers
- The Bible says that they had just left Bethany and John records just the chapter before how Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead
- Mark records that along this journey Jesus encountered one “Blind Bartimaeus” and Jesus healed Him.
- Matthew accounts that there were two blind men along the way that Jesus healed.
II. Jesus’ broken heart
A. All the gospel writers share this account, but they share it from different perspectives
1. Matthew and Mark tell how Jesus went straight into the Temple and overturned the tables of the money changers
2. John tells of Jesus exchange with His disciples concerning His coming crucifixion
3. Somewhere along the way the Gospel writer Luke’s eyes are opened by the Sprit to something that speaks so profoundly to Him that he knows it must be included in his record.
4. I believe Luke’s perspective on this is one that will speak powerfully to us in the day and hour in which we live as well.
a. But as He came closer to Jerusalem and saw the city ahead, He began to weep. "How I wish today that you of all people would understand the way to peace. But now it is too late, and peace is hidden from your eyes. Before long your enemies will build ramparts against your walls and encircle you and close in on you from every side. They will crush you into the ground, and your children with you. Your enemies will not leave a single stone in place, because you did not accept your opportunity for salvation." (Luke 19:41-44 NLT)
b. The lessons about our Lord
Body
I. Jesus Sees the Heart
A. “He Beheld the City”
B. What the average person saw
1. Beautiful Jerusalem, the religious capital of the world
2. A city buzzing with activity, much of it religious
3. The ceremonial acts in and around the Temple
C. So much of what the world sees is superficial
1. It’s only on the surface
2. It’s a façade that covers a much deeper reality
3. We put on shows because we don’t want people to know the hurt and dysfunction that is really in our lives
D. There is One who sees beyond into the heart of the matter
1. We can’t hide things from God
a. You can fool all of the people some of the time
b. You can fool some of the people all the time.
c. You can’t fool God any of the time.
2. God would surely have known it, for He knows the secrets of every heart. (Psalm 44:21 NLT)
E. The Reality of the City
1. Even though this was a city buzzing with religious activity and gave the appearances that everything was okay there was a deep undertow in the life of Jerusalem
2. There was unrest over the fact that they were under Roman authority
a. This was to be God’s city; it was the land of promise
b. They were subject to a pagan government
c. They were wishing God would just show up and deliver them from this tyranny
d. To every citizen and every Roman Century it appeared that they were loving life and loving their God, but deep inside there was a hurt and frustration for which they needed a remedy
F. Let’s be real!
1. How many of you ever become frustrated in your own life with the fact that you are a child of the King but you are still impacted by the fact that you live and have your being in a fallen world that is under the sway of demonic powers?
a. Physical Concerns
b. Financial hardships
c. Family & Relationship issues
d. Unrest at home and across the globe
2. How many of you face situations in life and you know that it would be so much better if God would just show up and make everything all right?
3. Your face indicates to the world that everything is okay, but deep inside your heart is breaking and you’re wondering where God is in the midst of your life.
4. Jesus sees!
II. Jesus Feels The Heart
A. He cares
1. The Bible assures us that Jesus cares for us.
2. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. (Hebrews 4:15 NKJV)
a. In other words, “Jesus, in bodily form has experienced the full spectrum of human living; He knows what we’re facing in this life.”
b. There is no room for us to look back to Him and say, “Lord, you don’t understand what I’m going through, You’ve never walked this way before.”
c. He has lived a life in the body
- He has suffered gross injustices
- He knows what it’s like to have friends abandon Him,
- He knows what it’s like to suffer physically,
- He knows what it’s like to have people revile and criticize Him
- He knows what it’s like to be persecuted
- He knows the pain of hunger and the anguish of thirst
B. Not only did He see, but He wept.
1. When Jesus beheld this city, knowing it’s state, He was moved to tears
2. If there’s one thing we learn of Jesus in the Gospels it is that He is compassionate.
a. At least 7 times in the gospels it describes events and says, “and He was moved with compassion.”
b. Other times after Jesus has healed someone or made miraculous provision He tells them, “Go and tell others that the Lord has been compassionate to you.”
III. A Gross Misunderstanding
A. Jesus weeps in part moved by His compassion for the People, and in part because He knows that they have a mistaken perception of where their peace for the situation will come from.
1. “If you had only known the things that make for your peace.”
2. Jesus knew that this people’s assumption was that their Messiah was going to come, storm into the city, overthrow the current governmental regime and establish an earthly rule right then and there.
3. In Jesus’ mind He’s probably thinking, “Nope, I’m not going to do that but if you’ll allow Me I can offer some peace for your hearts in this storm.
B. When we face the storms of life don’t we always know what will make for the peace of that situation?
1. If a check will mysteriously, miraculously land in our mailboxes for a certain amount then everything would be okay and we would know peace.
2. If we could just find favor with certain individuals and we could sway them to our side of understanding then the calm would come and we would experience peace.
3. If we could get the healing we so desperately need then……
4. If this person or that person in our relationships would just begin to behave differently then……
C. Life for you can be as smooth and placid as it can possibly be, but If you don’t allow Jesus, the Prince of Peace to rule and reign in your hearts you will have no lasting peace.
D. Troubles are the guarantee of this life but Peace is the Promise of the Lord
1. Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. (John 14:27 NKJV)
a. Not as the world gives
b. The world says everything has to be in line, and all the boxes have to be checked and everything has to make sense to us.
c. Paul Describes the peace of God as a Peace that passes all understanding
- It is there when things don’t make sense
- It is there while the storm is raging
- It is present in the darkest night
- It attends your way in the lowest valley
- It guards your mind when insanity crowds around you
- It keeps your heart when others would have failed.
2. Will you accept the Peace of the Lord for your life and situation today?
Conclusion
I. What might have been
A. Jesus wept in part over what might have been.
B. Had they turned to Jesus the history of a nation would have been altered for the good, but Jesus prophesied over that nation that their future would be one of war because of their rejection of the peace He came to bring.
II. Things that make for our peace
A. If you’ve never accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior you can never know lasting peace.
B. If you do know the Lord but refuse to rest in His peace then yours to will be a life of warring within where there should be peace.
