The Highest Road

The Highest Road!

Slide #1

Scripture…Mark 11:1-11

Welcome…guest cards.

Next week along with Millions of People we all will be participating in one of the biggest Biblical Holidays of the year…Easter Sunday.

It is known… as the most anticipated and attended Sunday services of the year for Christian Churches throughout the world.

Most all of us are familiar with the Bible stories about Palm Sunday (Jesus Triumphal Entry)…and the Empty Tomb (The Resurrection of our Lord and Savior).

And because of this… there should not be one Christian here today… that shouldn’t take part in some sort of outreach opportunity…by inviting someone to church.

But this is where most of us struggle…we feel inadequate like we don’t know enough… or we don’t have all the right answers to go out and invite someone to church…I mean what if someone does say yes…what then?

Video-

As a church family…8 days ago 35 of you did your part by helping in distributing 1,610 door hanger fliers…x 2.5 = 4,025 invites to this service.

Obviously everyone who was invited didn’t show up…but that’s not what’s important.

What’s important is the heart behind the one who serves.

Slide #2

Open your bibles with me to the 11th chapter in the book of Mark.

It is here that we read about a servant…a servant who enters into Jerusalem to participate in one of the most difficult outreach missions ever recorded in history. (READ)

Prayer

Jesus whole life was focused around people and ways to reach out to them...

He loved to serve them…He loved to teach and to train them…He spent every free moment of His life with them.

He taught them principles like… it’s better to give than receive…Your testimony is vital to reach the lost…The servants heart is seen through the way they give. (Not just financially)

He shared that this life is not what’s important.

He taught them the importance of inviting people to meet with Him…to know Him…to have a personal relationship with Him.

Slide #3

From our text today we see Jesus is on spiritual journey towards the Holy City…this city is known to us today as Jerusalem…

As Jesus approached Jerusalem He was aware that the Annual Passover Feast was preparing to begin.

He knew thousands of Jews from all over the Roman world would arrive to the Holy City with their hearts filled with Excitement...Joy and Anticipation…of the up-coming Passover Festival.

Every practicing Jew knew the Passover feast was established the night before God delivered their ancestors from their Egyptian bondage. (Exodus 12: 1-3; 7; 11b-14…Read )

God could not have picked a better time to introduce to His people the true Passover Lamb…(Jesus).

For this week long festival the population of Jerusalem tripled in size.

There were more merchants and people drawn into the city at this time than any other time of the year.

Families were reuniting and sharing stories of the past years challenges and blessings.

As Jesus walked down this very necessary road towards the Holy City with His disciples…a person can’t help but wonder what thoughts passed through His mind.

Jesus knew…

He had been called to serve mankind…even knowing that His time was limited.

(We waste so much time doing meaningless things…daily we work ourselves to death striving to obtain earthly treasures…that will never leave this world with us)

Jesus knew that it was much better to give than receive.

(There is nothing with higher value than sharing Jesus with someone close to you)

(We fail to prioritize what is truly important in life)

Jesus knew the importance of inviting the lost to the truth. It’s the only truth that has the power to set you free.

(Think right now of someone close to you…someone you work with…a family member…a close friend…or the stranger you just haven’t meet yet)…Invite them to church this next Sunday.

As Jesus approached Jerusalem…He knew that without Him traveling down this road…the world would not know about their sin.

He was a King… who very soon would have to face Judgment by laying down His life for all People.

As Jesus passed through Bethany and

Beth-the-ge…He was preparing to change History by doing something that He had never done before.

He was going to permit His followers…the disciples to give a public demonstration in His name.

Re-read Verses 1-3…

Jesus sent two of His disciples to Bethphage to pick up a colt whose service would very soon be need for the journey He was soon to embark on.

Still today…People don’t see the significance /importance behind God choosing a donkey to carry the Messiah into the city of Jerusalem.

Jesus chose the donkey so that He might fulfill the Messianic prophecy that had been recorded clear back in Zechariah 9:9.

“Behold, your king is coming to you;