← ArchiveLuke (That you may know)Sunday, March 20, 2016DateMarch 20, 2016Speaker—TextLuke 19Passages in this sermonLuke 191:24John 1115:37Luke 22:6917:10Galatians 324:312 Corinthians 5:2125:39TranscriptMachine transcribed. Click any line to jump there.0:00Welcome to Family Day. Welcome to our church. If you're new, if you're not new, welcome to our church. Welcome to Family Day. But our brothers and sisters around the world aren't celebrating Family Day today. Millions of Christians with us are celebrating what you might know as Palm Sunday. It's also called Flower Sunday, Passion Sunday, or Willow Sunday. This is the day traditionally0:21that Jesus Christ rode into Jerusalem. And today marks the day, the final week of his life, that Jesus rides in as King. And then as he rides in as King every day from this moment forward until Friday is leading to the cross. But today we celebrate Palm Sunday. We're going to look at three0:51important facts, three specific themes here in the book of Luke. We're going to look at the kingdom of Jesus Christ. We're going to look at the throne of Jesus Christ. And then we are going to end today together with the death of Jesus Christ. And you say, well, why are we going to end there? Come next week and we will pick up and we will look at the resurrection of Jesus Christ. So join us next1:17week for Easter. If you have a copy of God's word, please turn to Luke chapter 19. Luke chapter 19. Full disclosure, I want to go ahead and give you my heart this morning. If the story of Jesus and if the story of Easter is new, if church is brand new, if this idea of Palm Sunday, this is the first1:45you've heard of it, my prayer is that you believe it and that today you will put your trust in Jesus Christ for the first time. If you're here today and you've heard this story thousands of times, I pray that today God will make it new in your heart and that today God will restore to you as a scripture say the joy of his salvation. And I pray as we look at God and look at his word that we meet him face2:12to face and we are better for it because he has guided our hearts to grow in him and look like Jesus. So let's read God's word and then we will look at his scripture together. Luke 19 beginning in verse 35. "Then they," that's the disciples, "brought him," that's the colt, "to Jesus. And they threw their own clothes2:37on the colt, and they set Jesus upon him. And as he went, many spread their clothes on the road. Then as he was now drawing near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the3:02disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works they had seen, saying, "Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest." Let's pray together. Father, you sent your son because you so loved the world, that whoever believes in him might not perish, but have everlasting life.3:33Lord, and I thank you that your son is the true king. I thank you that he endured the cross for our sake, that he marched unto death, and Lord, he was innocent. He did not deserve death. But for our sake, so that we might believe, so that we might have eternal life, he endured the cross, that we might become the righteousness of God. Lord, stir our hearts today. Lord, if there is someone4:01here that does not know you, I pray that they will see their sin, that they will trust in you as their way of salvation. Because Lord, there is only one name under heaven by which men can be saved, and that name is Jesus Christ. Lord, if there are people here with hurts, with difficulties, I pray that you take those off of their shoulders and let them know that you are the king of kings and Lord of lords.4:28God, move us this morning. And I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Luke 19, let's look at the kingdom of Jesus Christ. The kingdom of Jesus Christ. Verse 35, Luke 19. If you're unfamiliar with how I preach and myself, keep your Bibles open. We're going to be4:54pushing into God's word as we go. So if you don't have a marker, just keep your thumb in Luke 19. Verse 35, "They brought him to Jesus, and they threw their own clothes on the colt, and they sat Jesus on him." Verse 36, "As he went, many spread their clothes on the road." Now, these are strange actions, because not many of you ride animals' places anymore. And those that you do don't throw your coats on the5:23animals and then have those throw their clothes on the ground as you are on your horse or goat or donkey. So what is going on here? These are elements, this is a visual portrayal that Jesus Christ is king. You can go back to the Old Testament and look at King Jehu. As he marched into town, the people were so excited5:49that they wanted to prepare the way of the king. Some cut down branches and threw them on the road. Some just took off their jackets and threw them on the road. So what we have here is the people are looking at Jesus and saying, "He is the king." And that's not just them saying that. Jesus Christ is the true king. So what do we know about his kingdom? You don't have a kingdom unless you're a king. And he is the true6:19king. And you say, "Well, pastor, what does that have to do with me?" We'll get there. He is the true king. He was born of Davidic lineage. He entered Jerusalem as Israel's true king. He would die as king of the Jews and he would be raised and return as the king. Here's what God's word reminds us of very clearly. Jesus does not need your help being king. Jesus does not look at me and say, "Josh, you know,6:46I'm really struggling today. I need your help being king." This is an absolute truth. Jesus Christ is king of kings and Lord of lords. He is king. And over and over again, God's word tells us that verse 35, they brought this colt to Jesus. No one had ever ridden upon it. They threw their clothes on the colt7:11and they set Jesus on him. Jesus Christ is king. And everything he does in his life points to the fact that he is in control. So pastor, how do you know that? Why this donkey? Why this colt? Because Jesus picked this colt out. Now think about this. If you go up and read the first three verses before this,7:37Jesus tells two disciples, "Look, go to this town and you'll find an animal." It's not my animal. Just go and you'll find the animal. It'll be tied up. No one's ever ridden on the animal before. And when you go to the animal, someone might ask you, "Why do you need it?" Tell them the Lord has need of it. And they're going to say, "Okay." And just as Jesus said, the two8:00disciples go, they find this animal tied up. They go and the owner comes out and says, "Hey, what are you doing with my animal?" And you know what they say? Look at verse 34. They said, "The Lord has need of them." And you know what the owner did? Okay. I know he's king. Here you go. Jesus Christ is the true king.8:23But here's our struggle. Because Jesus Christ is king, his kingdom is a threat to our kingdoms. When Jesus, the true king comes into our life, we struggle with that. And his kingdom, the true kingdom, competes with our make-believe kingdoms. You say, "Well, what do you mean?" We all have kingdoms,8:50don't we? We all have, we make our kingdoms. We have our houses, and our cars, and our families, and we work, and we do these things to make our kingdom. We don't call them kingdoms. We call them lives, and families, and hobbies, and we do things. But that's what we're really building, aren't we? We're building our kingdoms. And then the true king rides into town. And you know what we do? This is not good. There's conflict. There's confrontation. And this is exactly what happens.9:22Look at verse 39. The people say, "Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord, peace in heaven, and glory in the highest." And some of the Pharisees called to him from the crowd and said, "Teacher, rebuke your disciples." Why on earth, when the true king comes to town,9:42would someone say, "Be quiet, rebuke," because the true king competes against our phony kingdoms, competes for our phony kingdoms. I begin to think of this song. Some of you might know the song. I'll give you the song, and then you'll know where it came from. He sits alone on a giant throne pretending10:11he's the king, a little tyke who's rather like a puppet on a string. And he throws an angry tantrum if he cannot have his way. And then he calls for mom while he's sucking his thumb. You see, he doesn't want to play. Too late to be known as John the first. He's sure to be known as John the worst. A pox on that phony king of England." That comes from Robin Hood, the cartoon. That people are looking at this phony king,10:36and they're saying, "You are a phony king. The true king's away." And I believe that Jesus Christ looks at our lives and says the same thing. "Josh, you are a phony king. This kingdom that you have manufactured for yourself, why don't you just get off the throne?" But here's the beauty of the gospel, that some of us10:59have walked in here today, and we're struggling because we're trying to balance everything together. We're trying to keep our kingdoms afloat. And you don't have to. If you just give it to Christ and say, "Lord, you are the king, I'm not going to rebuke you, because even if I said, "Be quiet," the stones will cry out. Even if you say, "God, be quiet," the stones are going to cry out in our place.11:31So if you are here in this kingdom you have set up, if you're just struggling to make it run right, it's time to get off the throne and say, "Jesus, it's yours. It's yours." As we've seen in those testimonies already. "Lord, you are the true kingdom. It is your kingdom. You are the true king. Lord, I don't want to come in contact with you." But here's the reality of the gospel too. Some of us, all of us at times, some of us even now, will reject the king.12:03He said, "Well, I would never do that." Look, look at verse 39 again. Some of the Pharisees called to him from the crowd. By the way, Pharisees are the, they're the church people. Here's why that should make you struggle and quake in your shoes right now. You're there. Right? If these are the church people, guess where you are right now?12:31We're it. And the church people are saying, "Make your disciples be quiet." There's this confrontation, and now there's this rejection. Even as Jesus Christ is coming into Jerusalem, the people are rejecting him as king. And before you say, "Well, I would never do that," we all do that. The Bible calls it sin. All of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And I know I have.12:58And if you knew my heart like I knew my heart, you would probably be amening that. And it might not show up as outright rebellion, but it shows up in this way. Sometimes it's their habits. Sometimes there are hurts. Sometimes they're just hangups. Some of you are here right now, you just have sin in your life that you do not want to let go. You say, "I would follow God,13:23but I enjoy what I'm doing right now. I know it's wrong. I know it is outright rebellion against God, but you know what? I enjoy it. It is fun." I just want to tell you that it is leading you down a road to destruction. And the only answer is the true king. I believe there are some here that are just13:43here and you're hurt. Maybe there are past relationships. Maybe there are ugly breakups or ugly relationships that you were in and you just struggle with that because the person you were in a relationship with called himself a Christian and promoted the name of Jesus Christ. Some of you might be here for the first time and you were apprehensive of coming to a church because14:10it was a church that hurt you in the past. And you say, "Well, if this is what it means to be in a church, I don't know if I want to follow Christ because I'm hurt." And you are rejecting the king right now because you're hurt. Some of you maybe are just hung up on something. "Well, if God just did this for me, if God just showed me this, if Lord, if you would just do this miracle, then I would believe." You're hung up14:35on something. He is king regardless. And I pray that God will break your heart to say, "Lord, I can't see right now, but I trust." The true king was destined to be rejected. You might say, "Well, I'm struggling with that." Look at the heart of the true king, verse 41.15:02"Now as he drew near, he saw the city and he wept over it." Jesus knew and knows and will know that you reject him. And you know what he does in our rejection? This is the heart of our king. This is the heart of our heavenly father. He weeps over you. There are two places in the scripture that Jesus15:28Christ weeps. You're looking at one, the others in John 11. He weeps twice. And the two times we see Jesus Christ weeping, it's not for his own sake, it's for the sake of others. Your king loves you so much that he weeps over your rejection. So if you're here today and you have walls up, Jesus Christ is15:53weeping over that because he knows that he endured the cross for you. If you would just believe. His kingdom reigns forever and ever. He weeps over you. This is why we need the cross. Because we have rejected the king, we have set up our own temporary kingdoms in its place,16:19and we need the rightful king to sit upon the throne. So my first question to you this morning is this: Are you willing to get off the throne? Are you willing to get off? To say, "Lord, I can't do it." And that's not just a a BC before Christ problem. If you're here and you say, "Well, I'm a Christ follower, I believe we are often seduced, tempted to get back on that throne." To say, "Lord, I know I gave it to you,16:45but let's just put this thing on autopilot. Let me get back on." Let the king sit upon his throne. His kingdom is forever. It's time to get off. It's time to get off. Secondly, his throne. So if you will follow me now to Luke 22:69. We're going to work our way closer now to the cross.17:10Jesus is captured. He's arrested and the people are, they're asking him, they're trying him, they're pressing him, "Lord, who are you? Jesus, who are you really? We want to, we hate your message. We hate your authority. We're convicted because the true king has come into town. We want to kill you. How can we do that?" And so they are pressing upon him. And in this,17:37upon this scene, we get the throne of Jesus Christ. Here it is, the throne of Jesus Christ, verse 69. They say, "Who are you? Tell us who you are." And Jesus says, "Whereafter, the son of man will sit on the right hand of the power of God." So if you want to circle that18:01verse, "Jesus, if you're king, show us." We just heard that he is king. He has a kingdom. So if you are, show us. And Jesus' response is, "Hereafter this, the son of man will sit down at the right hand of the father." So they say, "Well, that's enough for us. Let's bring him now to the authorities. Let's18:30bring him to Pilate." Look at verse 1 of chapter 23. "The whole multitude of them arose and led him to Pilate. And they began to accuse him saying, 'We found this fellow,'" highlight that word fellow, "perverting the nation and forbidding to pay taxes to Caesar, saying that himself,18:56he himself is Christ a king." By the way, Jesus never said, "Do not pay taxes." Verse 4, "So Pilate said to the chief priests in the crowd, 'I find no fault in this man.'" Jesus looks at us and says, "I will sit down and power on my throne." He has a kingdom. He has a throne.19:20Here's the struggle. And here's our struggle. Where is his throne? Where is his throne? Jesus says, "I will sit down one day at the right hand of my father." And they bring him and say, "That's enough. Let's bring him to the Roman authorities." Pilate,19:47he says he is Christ. He said he's king. And this is a great chance for Jesus to look at Pilate and say, "There's my throne. Here's the address. My palace is here in Jerusalem." But Jesus never does that. And Pilate's response in verse 4 is, "I find no fault in this man." Here's our struggle with the throne of Jesus Christ. Our struggle is we can't see the throne. This is exactly why the scriptures say, "We walk by faith,20:16not by sight." Well, pastor, if he's king, if he'll show me his throne today, I want to see the jewels, the gold. I want to see the ivory. Let me see the throne. I'll believe." We walk by faith, not by sight.20:40And there is where we struggle. Because you and I live by our sight. We live in a world where we, to get our driver's license, I did this recently in Alabama, to get my driver's license, they they make you take a driving test and they check your eyes. Ask the lady, "Do you want me to use my,21:11do I need to use my glasses?" She said, "I don't know. It's up to you." I said, "If I want to pass this, I need to use my glasses." I have contacts in right now, by the way. Because we live in a world by physical sight. And we say, "Lord, let me see your throne." And the answer to us is, "My throne is at the right hand of my Father in heaven. Just trust me." And there's where we struggle.21:38Because when Jesus Christ says, "Trust," we want to say, "Well, Lord, if you show me, I will trust." And Jesus says, "Believe in me, and then you'll see." And we say, "But no, Lord, if you show me, I'll believe." And Jesus says, "No, believe in me, and you'll see the throne." And we say, "No, Lord, if you show me the throne, then I'll believe." And Jesus says, "I am king, trust me."22:04And you can hear the venom and the rage of the world in this passage. Look at verse 2. The church folk accuse him. And they said, verse 2, "We have found this fellow." The Greek is "toutan." They didn't say this king, this Jesus. We said this thing. That's what they said. We have22:31found this. We are going to accuse this thing. As if to say, we don't believe him. And look at the accusation. That this thing, this one in verse 2, he does what? He perverts the nation. He seduces people. The word for seduction means that they are charging Jesus with seducing people to leave the kingdom of22:55Rome and follow another kingdom. Because they believed he was a false king because they couldn't see the throne. And what they didn't know is that Jesus is king. And if you have come here today and you say, "Well, if he shows me his throne today, I'll believe." Believe in the savior and he will open your eyes.23:17Trust in him. Because there are times in our life where we want to see the plan and we don't really trust the master architect. Are you trusting him? He has a kingdom and it is from everlasting to everlasting. He has a throne, but it's not what you think. Verse 21, chapter 23.23:41Verse 21, "His throne. They shouted saying, 'Crucify him! Crucify him!' Our heavenly father sent his only son, the true king, to ride into Jerusalem, triumphant, to sit upon the rightful throne. He does have a throne, but his throne was made of wood. His throne was made24:09of wood. And he endured that for our sake. Why would Jesus go to the cross, endure the cross, die on the cross? He did it because of this. Galatians 3 says, "Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, by becoming a curse for us, because it is written, everyone who hung on a tree is cursed." That Jesus24:39Christ died on a cross. He made that cross his throne to be cursed for you. Because when we play this phony king game, when we set up our empires, when we try to do things in our life to make ourselves acceptable before God, we are running a race that we can never win.25:05You're feeding the fire. If you say, "Well, pastor, I'm good." How do you know God's standard? We do know God's standards. And there's only one that could fill that. And his name was Jesus Christ. And he died. He became a curse that you and I might not have to run this rat race and die a life without him.25:28Why the cross? Because he was cursed for us. 2 Corinthians 5:21. He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God. Jesus Christ made his throne the cross, that he might become sin for you. That he might become sin.25:56His kingdom is eternal. His throne was a cross. And lastly, let's look at his death this morning. Verse 40, chapter 23. I'm actually going to begin with verse 29. This is now Jesus on his throne, on the cross. There's a plaque26:20above the cross that says, "This is King of the Jews." Then one of the criminals who was hanged, blasphemed him, saying, "If you are the Christ, save yourself and us." And by the way, the name Jesus means he will save the people from their sins. So, Jesus, if your name really means what you say you are, save yourself. Verse 40.26:48"But thank God," the other criminal answered, said, "Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation? We are indeed justly, for we receive the due reward for our deeds. But this man has done nothing wrong. Then he said to Jesus, "Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom." He just said, "Lord, remember me.27:18That's all I ask." Verse 43, Jesus said to him, "Assuredly, I say to you, I'm not going to remember you, but today I will be with you and you will be with me in paradise." His kingdom is eternal. His throne was the cross and his death was for you. He was mocked even until and into27:40death. This first criminal made three mistakes. One, he decided to mock the Lord because he didn't believe he could save. If you really can save, save yourself right now. Lord, I don't know if you can save. I just want to tell you in my heart, I believe everything the Bible says about Jesus Christ, he can save you from your sins.28:07And we have many that can tell that same story that you saw today. And they said, "If he can save me, he can save you. We believe he can save." That's why he died. The criminal also made this mistake. He assumed that Jesus Christ was guilty. He assumed Jesus Christ was guilty. And over and over again in Luke, Pilate says three times, the criminal says once and after Jesus28:37dies, this hardened Roman centurion, this professional mercenary looks at this man and says, "Surely he is innocent." Don't make that mistake. Jesus Christ is truly innocent. The third mistake is that in his sarcasm, he failed to recognize that Jesus Christ in his death was bringing life to a world that so desperately29:05needed it. He said, "Well, Jesus, save yourself." And Jesus is speaking to us and saying, "No, I'm going to save you by dying." Jesus said, "It's not about me. It's about us. It's about the world. It's about those who can't save themselves." Jesus Christ is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. His kingdom is eternal. His throne was the cross and he died on the cross for your sake, for your sake.29:37My question for you this morning is this. Which criminal are you? Which criminal are you? You might be the first here in verse 39. One criminal mocked him saying, "If you are the Christ." To mock means to make something laughable.29:57And maybe you're here and you've been playing the church game. You look good. You smell good. You look righteous. You know your Bible verses. But if we knew your heart like God knows your heart, you've been mocking the salvation that's been offered to you. And you might say, "Well, pastor,30:25no one would do that." Yes, you would because I did that. I was the church boy. That looked good. But when I went home, when I thought, when I, in my mind, when I thought in my heart, my actions said otherwise. I was mocking God to his face. As if church could save me. And I'm thankful for the day the true king rode into town and said, "Josh, it's time for the phony king30:55to move out of the way." Maybe God's been working on your heart and you just need to lay aside the facade and say, "God, I'm tired of mocking. God, I believe. I can't see the throne, but I trust that it's there. And that I know if I believe in your son, Jesus Christ, you'll give me eyes of faith and then I will see." If that's you this morning, I'm going to ask shortly that you just surrender your life to Christ.31:24You put your faith in him and you trust that he is king of kings. Maybe you're here and you're struggling. You're like the second criminal. Verse 40 who said, "Do you not even fear God?" And this criminal said, "We're here on the cross because we deserve it." And what a great picture of repentance. We cannot have salvation unless we truly repent. You say, "Well, pastor, what does that look31:53like?" Well, there's lots of ways it looks like, but here's the building blocks. "Lord, I'm guilty. You're not. Help me." You might say, "Well, that's it?" Yeah. This criminal didn't have it all figured out, but he knew he was guilty. And until we get to the point where we say, "Lord, I deserve what I'm getting. I deserve this broken relationship with God because32:19I've sinned. Lord, I deserve the destruction that is looking at me in the face. God, I deserve the hopelessness because it's my fault. I've sinned. But Lord, help me." And when we do, when we say, "Lord, remember me," he doesn't just say, "I'll remember you." Our savior looks at us and says, "I'm not just going to remember you. I'll be with you. Today, you will be with me. Not tomorrow, not when I get around to it,32:44but today you will be with me in paradise. I will give them life and life more abundant." If you are here and you have never put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ, you can do that right where you sit. You don't have to come forward. You don't have to talk to the pastor because there's no magic word that I can give you to be saved. That is between your heart and the Lord. I pray33:13that you will do business with where you sit today. That you will say, "Lord, I'm guilty. Your son is not. I want the true king to be on my throne." If you have not believed, what are you waiting for? I pray today will be the day of your salvation. Maybe you're here and you do believe and you've been playing the church game. You said, "Lord, here's the throne," but you've kind of jumped back on it. Maybe you just need to lay that down this morning to come before the altar and say, "Lord,33:42I'm just tired of being phony." There are no perfect Christians. That's why he died. There's only one perfect king and you're not looking at him. Thank God he is our king. We're going to have a time of invitation. This is for you just to spend some time wrestling with the Lord. I know anytime God's words proclaim, when we open up God's word, it is living and active and it touches our hearts. If God has moved34:10in your life, do not miss a chance to do business with your savior. He loves you. He weeps over your rejection and he died for you that you might become the righteousness of God.← Previous in Luke (That you may know)Sunday, March 13, 2016Next in Luke (That you may know) →Sunday, March 27, 2016More sermons on Luke →
