Your Choice: Accept Or Reject Series

The Saint

Worship is personal, yes, but IT IS NOT PRIVATE!

The Seeker

Standing just outside the threshold of a house still leaves you outside.

The Sceptic

You don’t have to know everything about something or someone to trust.

It was a beautiful Spring day. The city was bustling with out of town visitors and the excitement could be cut with a knife. One reason for the excitement was that it was the most important holiday of the year. People came from around the known world to celebrate deliverance from slavery and freedom that hadn’t been experience for 100s of years.

We have a similar celebration called Independence Day or 4th of July when we gather as a nation to celebrate our independence and freedom from English tyranny. We have friends and relatives over, throw big parties and bbqs and celebrate that seminal event in our history.

On this particular Spring day, the Jews were in the midst of a 7 day celebration of their independence from they tyranny of Egypt and its Pharaoh. 7 days. Can you imagine a 4th of July celebration that lasted 7 days? Yikes!!

But for the Jews in Jesus time, they had no cars, no planes and most would travel 2-3 days to get to Jerusalem where the celebration was. Others would travel for weeks. So when you got there, it needed to be more than just a couple of hours. It was a week long celebration, set, not by custom, but by God Himself for this new Hebrew nation and their Exodus from Egypt.

It was called Passover. It was a time to remember and celebrate when God sent the death angel to convince Pharaoh to let his people go. And the Jews who splashed the blood of an unblemished lamb on the doorposts of their houses were spared the death of their first born.

That 1st Passover was at the foot of Mt. Sinai a year after the Exodus. The year was probably in about 1500 B.C. But this Passover week we’re about to read was about 30 A.D. And as we read this you will see the other major reason for the buzz in the city: Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem at the culmination of His earthly life and ministry.

Turn in your Bibles to Luke 19:28-40; 47-48. Today we begin a new series entitled Look Again. We’ll be examining the final week of Jesus earthly, fully human life & ministry. When you read the events of the wee, it reads like a Hollywood Movie Script: Celebration, Rejection, Betrayal, Defeat, and a Never-seen-before Ending. Many of us in the room have been knowing this story for years and years. And there in is a problem: the more familiar we become with something the tendency is to approach it with a casualness or even callousness and miss the life-changing dynamic. So we’re going to look again at the events of that final week and look again for God to overwhelm us with His once in history amazing act that opened the door for humanity to be reconciled to Himself.

Luke 19:28-40; 47-48 (on screen) with comments Most everyone in the room has read or heard this story many, many times. So don’t your familiarity with it cause you to miss a fe morsels that can enrich your life. Look again!

v.28 ‘going up to Jerusalem’; Jesus had been making His way to Jerusalem from Jericho. Jericho is northeast of Jerusalem (map) about 15 miles. Jericho is in the Jordan River valley about 800’ below sea level. Jerusalem is about 2500’ above sea level, so this 15 mile journey goes up about 3300’.

v.29 ‘Bethphage and Bethany’; these were 2 small villages about 2 miles across the Kidron valley on the east side of what is known as the Mt. of Olives. (pic). Would have been walking down through the Kidron valley to the Easter/Golden gate. (pic)

v.30 ‘young donkey’; a donkey colt

v.36 ‘putting cloaks’; Matthew, Mark, & John all mention in their gospels that palm branches were also waved at the coming Jesus and laid before Him. This of course is why many call this Palm Sunday. Matthew states that this fulfilled one of the key prophecies of the coming Messiah, that he would enter Jerusalem like a king, riding on a donkey colt to His adoring subjects.

vv.38-39 The crowd that had gathered had at least 3 elements in it. One element was the crowd that had heard about Jesus and heard how He had healed the sick, gave sight to the blind, and caused the lame to walk. So they were all excited and began to chant Psalm 118:26 as Jesus approached. Matthew adds that they also quoted v.25 of Psalm 118.

Hosanna to the Son of David! Hosanna means, “Save us, we pray.