The King Has Come

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Well, if you'll take your Bibles and open them up to Luke chapter 19 and we're going to read verses 28 through 44.
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And after he had said these things, he was going ahead, going up to Jerusalem.
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When he approached Bethphage and Bethany near the mount, which is called
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Olivet, he sent two disciples saying, go into the village ahead of you there and as you enter, you will find a colt tied on there, which no one yet has ever sat.
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Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, why are you untying it?
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You shall say, the Lord has need of it. So those who were sent went away, found it just as he had told them.
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And as they were untying the colt, the owner said, why are you untying the colt? And they said, the Lord has need of it.
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They brought it to Jesus. They threw their coats on the colt and put Jesus on it. As he was going, they were spreading their coats on the road.
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Now, as soon as he was approaching near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of the disciples began to praise
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God joyfully with a loud voice for all the miracles which they had seen, shouting, blessed is the
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King who comes in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest. And some of the
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Pharisees in the crowd said to him, teacher, rebuke your disciples. But Jesus answered and said,
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I tell you, if these become silent, the stones would cry out. And when he approached
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Jerusalem, he saw the city and he wept over it, saying, if you had only known this day to you, the things which had made for your peace.
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But now they have been hidden from your eyes for days will come upon you when your enemies will throw a barricade against you, surround you, hymn you in on all every side.
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And they will level you to the ground, your children within you, and there will be not one of you one stone upon another left because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.
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Most gracious, heavenly father, thank you for the written word of God, which is forever settled in heaven, that we have it in our hands to be examined, to be preached, to be studied, to be applied to our life.
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And father, God, I pray that I open your word to your people and proclaim your truth from your word, that God, I would not wield the sword in such a way that father would bring dishonor to your name, that father, the word of God is already sharper than a two edged sword.
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It divides even the soul and the spirit and the bone in the marrow. And father, I pray that as the word is preached, as the word is proclaimed, that Christ Jesus would be put on display or father, he is the king of kings.
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He is the Lord of lords. And you have said in your word that one day every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is
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Lord to the glory of God. Father, so as the word is proclaimed, I pray that it would be life unto life in Christ's name.
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Amen. We come to a most famous passage which begins what we would call
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Passion Week. And, you know, Passion Week actually doesn't begin today. It'll begin next Sunday. And when having the opportunity to preach for Keith, I said, well,
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I will preach the triumphal entry. And one year ago, Keith, I mean,
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Andy preached from the Matthew passage on those that followed the words of the
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Lord. So we are familiar somewhat with this passage. And in Jesus's life, if this was a music, a musical, this would be the crescendo.
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This is what all of Jesus's life had been waiting for. Jesus's life was planned for this very purpose for the last week of his life.
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Look, Jesus was a shaker and a mover. He was all over for three, three and a half years.
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He was all over Galilee, Judea. He hopped the Jordan. He'd go over to Decapolis.
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He'd be in Tyre and Sidon. And if you read the Gospels and if you read them in a harmonized way, wherever Jesus went with the exception of one city, he cast out all the demons, healed everybody, and then he would leave the place and people would follow him from place to place.
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But Jesus did something very significant that would put things in place that ultimately would lead to his demise from a humanist perspective.
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Just a number of weeks before Jesus was crucified, he was in the city of Bethany and he had been told just weeks prior,
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I mean, just days prior, hey, you're the man that you love is sick and he is dying.
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And Jesus said, I ain't worried about it. And then they came to him again and said, you know, he's going to die.
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And Jesus actually then said to them, he is dead. And it's good. You imagine that somebody telling you it's good that your family member is dead.
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He said, you're going to see the glory of God. Jesus then went to Bethany and he told
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Martha, he said, though he be dead, yet shall he live. Do you believe this? She said, yes,
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I believe it. But it'll be in the resurrection. He then told them to remove the stone. And in the
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King James Version, it says he stinketh. He'd been dead four days.
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They said, there's no way he stinks. I mean, he's rotten. And in that powerful way,
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Jesus said, Lazarus, come forth. And if you ever read that, you know that he is bound. He is bound with grave closing.
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I mean, in my mind, what are you going to float out? Because Jesus then says, hey, you need to lose him and let him go.
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They unclothed him and he went on. You know, it was because of that very thing. It says in the book of John that they wanted to kill not only
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Jesus, they wanted to kill Lazarus as well. So it would be at that point that Jesus then moved on up to Galilee, continued his preaching and his teaching.
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But just the week prior to coming to the triumphal entry, he would have made his way down.
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You can read this in the Gospels. It was started in Galilee, worked his way down as they got to Samaria with the people that were traveling with him on their way to the
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Passover feast, which was about to take place just a week prior to his triumphal entry, about a week after his triumphant entry.
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They would come down, they would get to Decapolis and then they would hop the Jordan River. And if you know why they would hop the
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Jordan River is most Jewish people would not go through Samaria because it was considered unclean.
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They would then come down, hop the river, go down Decapolis, come over and then come through Jericho.
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Well, as Jesus was coming through Jericho, and many of us remember the story as well, that he coming into the city, saw
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Zacchaeus was a wee little man and a wee little man was he. He climbed up in a sickle.
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Okay, well, what did he do? He said, hey, dude, come on down, I'm coming to your house. And we see a great act of repentance in the life of Zacchaeus.
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But then as he is leaving, he is leaving Jericho. Remember, this is a caravan of people going to the
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Passover week feast. And as he is leaving, these two blind men hollering out to him, oh, son of David, have mercy on me.
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And those men get shushed. Anybody here ever been shushed? My wife shushes me all the time,
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Mike, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh. They shushed them. Don't bother him.
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And Jesus said, hold on, who was that? And it was blind Bartimaeus was one of those, you remember? And Jesus healed him as they were coming out of Jericho.
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Like I said, Jesus was a shaker and a mover. Jericho, this is what you understand how, this is, they're walking.
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Jericho is 800 feet below sea level. They're heading to Jerusalem.
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Jerusalem is 2400 feet above sea level and an 18 mile trek.
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And they're walking as he comes out of Jericho, makes his way.
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They come to Bethany and that's where they settle. That's where they settle in on the
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Sabbath, the Sabbath before Jesus makes his triumphal entry. He is at Lazarus house.
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He is there because they have made a party for Jesus, a dinner for him. And he's there one because he loves
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Lazarus. He loves Mary and Martha, but he's also on his way to Jerusalem.
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It would be on that night of that Sabbath before that he would be anointed with oil over his head again.
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And that is where Judas would say, can you believe that they have done this for him?
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You not know that that bottle of oil could have been sold for 300 denario and given to the poor.
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And Jesus rebukes them and says, Hey, she knows it's the time of my departure.
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So that would be that Sabbath. It would be on this Sunday morning that Jesus would then get up and he would, that's where this picks up.
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It says, and after these things, this is beginning in verse 28 of Luke 19, after these things, he was going on ahead and going up to Jerusalem.
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And when he approached Bethphage or if you prefer Bethphage, uh, Bethphage and Bethany near the
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Mount, which is called all of it, he sent two of his disciples. Now, Bethany was on the
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Eastern side of the Mount of Olives. So if you were looking at Jerusalem would be here, the
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Mount of Olives was just a little higher than Jerusalem. And you would come down the backside, the
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Eastern slope of the Mount of Olives. And then you would go on about an, about a mile, a mile and a half away.
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You would have Bethphage and then another half a mile. You would have Bethany. Bethany was about two miles outside of Jerusalem.
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And they would begin to make their way towards that. He tells his disciples, go into the village ahead of you.
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And there, as you enter, you will find a colt, which no one has ever yet set, untie it and bring it here.
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If anyone asks you, why are you untying it? You shall say, the Lord has need of it. So Jesus sends them on.
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And how I understand that is they're leaving Bethany and that village in between the Mount of Olives and Bethany would be
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Bethphage, which is where this colt would have been tied. And as he sends them, it's astounding to me that his disciples don't even question it.
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You know, they just, sure, and Andy preached that sermon last year around this time about how they obeyed whatever
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Jesus told him to do. They didn't question it. Now there is some people that, commentators and preachers that believe that maybe
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Jesus had prepared ahead of time for this colt to be sitting there.
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I don't hold that. One, we have a biblical warrant to show that Jesus was acting as an
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Old Testament prophet. Because if anybody remembers what Samuel did, he told Saul, you're going to go into this city because he had already commissioned him to be the king.
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You're going to go into this city and you're going to see one guy carrying three kids, not carrying three kids, but goats, carrying three goats, three jugs, three jugs of water, two jugs of wine.
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He's going to give you two loaves of bread. So when Jesus tells you, you're going to go in here and you're going to see this, this and this, this is because Jesus is exercising his prophet hood, not because he had made preparations from before.
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And he says, and when you get there, you're going to see this colt tied up. And if anyone asks you, he says, tell them the
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Lord has need of it. Hey, that ain't like me going in and saying, Hey Gary, I want you to go get this motorcycle and bring it back for me.
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You know, Gary's going to go hop on this bike. He's going to bring it back. He's uh, yeah. Who told you to come?
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Yeah. Mike, the painter. What? Get out of here. No, these, they sent his disciples in.
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He said, get that colt as you're untying it. If somebody questioned you, you tell them the Lord has need of it.
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And that is exactly what happened. And there's no pushback. But not only is it a colt, this colt has never been ridden on.
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So they're bringing in a donkey. You know, a donkey, a year old, about that tall.
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And this is what Jesus is fixing to ride in on. He's going to bring that donkey to them. It's never been ridden.
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This donkey has never been broken. Anybody ever try to break an animal? It's not real easy, but he's saying, look, this animal that I'm fixing to use has a sacred purpose and it's to carry the king.
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And they're going to bring that donkey to him and Jesus is going to sit on it. And believe it or not, probably
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Jesus had to pick up his feet, this donkey, so little. We often think that he's riding this horse and that's not what's taking place.
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He's riding in a one -year -old donkey. And if you want to see a one -year -old donkey, go out to Kelly's house and you can see one.
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You can even ride it. She's got the Jerusalem donkey. It's got the cross on its back and all, two of them. Anyway, so he says to them, untie it, bring that colt, the owners will say to them, why are you doing it?
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And he says here, the Lord has need of it. They brought it to Jesus, verse 35, and they brought it to Jesus and they threw their coats on the colt and put
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Jesus on it. So whoever this group of people is, it is the disciples as well.
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It is pilgrims that are following their way to the Passover feast. They threw their coats on top of this donkey so that Jesus could ride.
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Not because Jesus didn't know how to ride bareback, okay? That's not the purpose of it. The purpose was to show these people were in full submission to who this person was.
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In the book of Kings, I don't know if anybody remembers the story with Ahab, he gets killed by Jehu and he is then
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Jehu's commissioned as king. They do this very thing, showing their submission to the king. They throw their coats on the donkey as Jehu becomes the king in submission.
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Not only is it the act of showing your clothing being under him as riding on it, but we're going to see here in a few minutes, they're throwing their clothes and other things on the ground as well, saying, we're putting ourselves under his feet.
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And as they were going, they were spreading their coats on the road. Now another passage you'll have where not only were they throwing their coats on the road, but they were throwing palm branches on the road.
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That's where we get the story of Palm Sunday or some passages say leafy branches.
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And that is probably what it was, was leafy branches. Palms were probably pretty easy to find there, so they were throwing them on the ground.
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And historically, this would have had an echo back to a time in which another person was riding into Jerusalem where they were saying,
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Hosanna, where they were throwing down branches before him as well in the book of Maccabees.
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Remember what happened in the book of Maccabees. It's a historical book.
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It's not inspired, but it does tell us about when they overthrew the
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Seleucid Empire with Antiochus Epiphanes and they rededicated the temple with Judas Maccabeus.
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And you know what they did with Judas when he came, Maccabeus came riding in to rededicate the temple, which is where we get the festival of lights,
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Hanukkah. This is the very thing that was happening. So I'm not on the,
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I'm not defending the Pharisees, but I do understand from their perspective as Jesus is riding into the city, these people are throwing these things down.
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They're seeing them, some similarities to what happened with Antiochus Epiphanes where he had been overthrown by Judas Maccabeus.
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And here they see Jesus of Nazareth coming in and they're going, hey, we can't have this.
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And the response would be why? Because they would then destroy the holy place,
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Jesus, and those people because they would see Jesus as the liberator. And no doubt, this is what they saw
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Jesus as, as the liberator. And it says, as soon as he was approaching near the descent of the
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Mount of Olives, the crowd of disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the miracles which they had seen.
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So once again, this is telling you who is with him. These are pilgrims that have been following him for at least a week.
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If you would have been at the time of the Passover feast week before, they used to, under the
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Jewish law, you could not observe the Passover outside of the city limits of Jerusalem, had to be done within.
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But as things grew, they enlarged the walls around and then they said, okay, we're going to expand the city limits with tent cities so that the people that would come, got a million people would become, dang, this is better than the
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Super Bowl coming to your, to your city. This is huge. So there would be tents a mile out and there would be all over.
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So as Jesus is coming in, they're seeing him come in and they're remembering this is the one.
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This is the one that has made the blind see, has made the lame leap like deer.
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He has cast out demons. He has caught, take people's withered hands and legs and feet, whatever, it has healed them.
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And not only that, but John has already told us that when they knew that Jesus was out at Bethany, it said the crowds moved out to Bethany to see this
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Jesus that and Lazarus, whom had been raised from the dead. Jesus was the most popular figure in the last three years of his life in Judea.
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And we often think that Pilate knows, we think that they had no idea of who this
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Jesus was. You can rest assured they had a folder on him. They knew who he was. I mean, how many times had
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Jesus already been to the Passover feast and, and festival of lights to the day of atonement?
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There was times in which they had, and that Jesus would be their teaching. So Jesus being the very popular figure was now coming up to the
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Mount of Olives as he crested the top, he would be hearing, blessed is he who comes in the name of the
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Lord. Peace on heaven and glory to God in the highest. And listen to this.
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Can you imagine rebuking the son of God? Some of the disciples, some of the
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Pharisees in the crowd in verse 39 say to him, teacher, you need to rebuke your disciples. You imagine telling
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Jesus what to do? I mean, the last time we see someone tell Jesus what to do, he said he called him
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Satan. Remember he called the first Pope, Peter? Yeah. He said, get behind me.
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You don't rebuke the son of God. He does the rebuking. And Jesus answered and he said,
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I tell you, if these become silent, the stones would cry out.
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He says, look, even if I tell them right now to zip it, and which they would, I mean, if he can tell the seas and the wind to quit blowing, if he just was to say zip, you'd all become mute.
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He says, what I have created will begin to cry out because of what is happening.
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And then as he approached Jerusalem, he saw the city.
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I'll stop right there for a second. So here it is. Jesus has made that descent.
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He is from Jericho. He is now coming up the eastern slope of the
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Mount of Olives. As he gets to the top, as you get to the top of the
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Mount of Olives, if you've ever been there, you can stand at the top and you oversee what is left of the
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Temple Mount. It's beautiful. So I can imagine what it would have been like then as you come over with the temple itself facing the eastern side with the sun beaming off the gold plate on the front.
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Remember, the whole front of it was gold plated, had gold dust in the grout, marble. Absolutely. It was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.
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And as Jesus comes up the Mount of Olives, he sees that most beautiful thing was of the ancient world.
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We all know what it's like to see something beautiful. It fills our hearts with joy.
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Any man in this room that looks back on the day that he was married and remembers the joy when he saw the doors open in the back and saw his bride come walking forward.
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That is a memory, I keep that memory on my phone. And as they see that bride coming forward, just filled with joy.
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That's not what happens to Christ here. As he comes to the top and for, per se, the doors open, he sees the city.
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He begins to weep. Jeremiah was called the weeping prophet.
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Many said that Jesus was like Jeremiah. And it's not because he was a weeping prophet.
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You know what? We only have two times where Jesus ever cried in scripture that we see. And they're two different types of crying.
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The word that's used here, where it says, and he wept, is the word kaleo, which means to cry out, to lament, to bewail, to convulse in tears.
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How many of you ever have been so grieved that you have been crying so hard, your body convulses?
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That's the one being used here. Not like the one dekrau, which was used when he,
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Jesus, stood in front of the tomb at Lazarus. That word just means to silently shed a tear.
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So there's a vast difference on the tears that he shed in front of the tomb at Lazarus and the tears that he is shedding here.
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The tears that he is shedding here are bewailment, bereavement, grief, convulsing, because he is lamenting over the city.
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Said saying this in verse 40, 42, said saying, if you had only known this day, even you the things which made for your peace.
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What day? This specific day? Or is he talking about the totality of his life?
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The last three years of his life was spending day in, day out, showing that he was the
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Messiah. And if you read through the Gospels, you will sometimes have theologians called the messianic secret, that Jesus would do something and then he said, don't tell him.
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Don't tell him. He healed someone. He says, you are the
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Christ, the son of God. He said, don't tell him. John six, when
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Jesus fed the multitude and they, he fed them, they wanted so much bread was so good that they wanted to make him king.
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And what did Jesus have to do? He did the David Copperfield on him. He poof, he disappeared on him, went over the other side where they couldn't get to him because they wanted to make him king.
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Jesus said, I ain't here to be king yet. Now we come to a point to where these people are showing him to be king and Jesus is now accepting that kingship.
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They were not looking for the king that Jesus was. They weren't looking for the one that would come make peace between God and man.
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They were coming to look for someone that would smash Rome to bits.
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They were looking for someone much like Judas Maccabeus. They were looking for someone like the, the
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Maccabean revolt, which would lead a revolt that ran, that ran out the
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Seleucid empire and gave them their independence, which did last for almost a hundred plus years.
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That's where they're hoping Jesus would be. That is not the liberator that Jesus came to be.
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We often think peace is often peace in this life, peace here.
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And I do want you to know that I want us all to live in peace. But more important than the peace here is that I have peace with God because that peace with him is forever and ever and ever.
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This little problems and tribulation in this life are insignificant to eternity.
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I mean, think how old Jack is. Jack, you're, you're 90 years old. 90.
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That's not even a blip on the radar. Methuselah, 969 years old.
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Think about that compared to eternity. It ain't even a blip on the screen. It's not about peace in this life.
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It's about making peace with God. And he said, even this day, you should have known that these things would make for your peace.
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How many times did Jesus have to rebuke the Pharisees and say, oh, no, no, no.
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Have you not heard? Have you not read? Have you not remember what Moses said?
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He is a plug at them saying you should have known the times, the signs of the times. You should have known that I am the one.
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Look, when, even when he was casting out, they said, hey, this guy's doing it because he's, he's got the spirit of Beelzebub.
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What a stupid thing to say. Jesus, he basically says that to them.
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Do you not know a house divided against one another could not stand? So why would I be, if I'm Beelzebub, casting out
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Beelzebub? He basically said, you're stupid. I'm showing you that I have the power over the dark, over the evil one.
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He said, I'm going to bind the strong man and y 'all should be able to see this.
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And he even said at one time, hey, you can look out there and you can see how the, how the weather's going to be.
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Hey, it's red sky, rain's coming. You see all those things, but you can't see what is standing in front of you.
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They did see what was standing in front of them. And they wanted to kill it.
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We read just a few weeks ago in Isaiah 61, which is where Jesus comes into Nazareth, his hometown, after being led out into the wilderness, driven out there by the spirit to be tempted by the devil for 40 days and 40 nights.
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He comes back to Jerusalem, I mean, back to Nazareth. He goes into the synagogue. He walks up to the attendant.
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He takes the scroll. He opens it up to Isaiah 61, which they didn't have 61. So he showed his smartness right to the spot.
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And it said, the spirit of the Lord is with me. And he goes on to read that passage and he stops right before the day of vengeance because he is there not to be vengeance yet, but to set captives free.
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That's what Jesus came to do. And we often think it's at that point that they take him out to the city cliff.
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You may remember that passage. They take him in Luke 4 out to the city cliff and they're going to push him off. You know, that's how they stoned people then.
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They would push you over and then pelt you to see to it that you died. They take him out to the city cliff, not because of that, but if you have to see what said after that, it says in the time of Elijah, when he prayed for no rain, he gave rain to one.
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And then there was a time for the widow of Zarephath. There was many widows, but he saved one and just raised the son.
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He was saying, look, when God sent one man to do that for one group of people, for one individual in those time,
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I'm coming and I'm setting them all free. I'm going to loose the tongues. I'm going to raise the dead.
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And that's not what they wanted. Instead, they wanted someone to stomp out
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Rome. And he's saying again, you would have only known which would make peace.
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But now that they have been hidden from your eyes, this is judicial hardening.
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He said, look, you missed it. I came, you saw it, you have now been unable to recognize why my purpose was here.
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Now, because you willingly rejected that, you know what I'm going to do? You're never going to see it again.
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Your time is over. And Jesus, knowing that, wept over that city.
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You know, that is the we often think of the destruction of Jerusalem, destruction of the temple happened at the
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Isle of it discourse. This is the first time the condemnation of the city, meaning destruction is coming, happens before he ever gets to Jerusalem, before he ever makes his message on the
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Isle of it discourse. It comes on his triumphal entry as he's coming up to the city. He sees what they want, something else other than him.
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They want him just to be some religious leader that then turns into a political leader and becomes a king, crushes
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Rome. And Jesus begins to weep. He says, because you didn't see it. Now I'm going to hide the rest of it from your eyes.
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And then he says exactly what's going to happen when he does it. He says, for the days will come upon you when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you.
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And that's exactly what they did. That's exactly what Rome did. Rome clear cut the trees from around Jerusalem, 90 furloughs, clear cut it and use that wood to build up a barricade to siege the city off.
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There wasn't a tree within three miles out and they're going to set up a barricade.
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We're going to surround you and we're going to him you in on every side. And that's exactly what happens.
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Eventually Titus comes and said it many a times teaching on the book of Revelation and destruction of Jerusalem.
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In chapters 24 of Matthew, he sets up a siege wall.
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They then him them in. Nobody can get in. Nobody can get out. And they begin to starve the people out.
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So they him you in on every side. God used whom they wanted him to crush under his heel.
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He uses them now to judge his own people. And you know what? He does that all through the
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Old Testament. You know what he used to use against his own covenant people that rejected the prophets?
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What did he do? He'd send another army in, wreak havoc.
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Hopefully that would bring repentance. And sometimes it did, sometimes it didn't. And then sometimes he just let them lay waste to the city.
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He says here in verse 44, and they will level you to the ground.
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In other words, he isn't just talking about the destruction of the temple. He says they're going to level the city.
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They're going to level the city. They're going to bring it to the ground. Some passages may say raised, meaning
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R -A -Z -E, not raised as in raised this way. Raised to the ground, crush you, your children within you.
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And there will not be one stone left upon another. You understand that when
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Jesus speaks, it's going to take place. This is not
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Jesus just speaking some oracle of doom. Not speaking, hey, unless you repent, you likewise will perish.
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You remember when the tower fell on them and they talked about Pilate going in and those, that synagogue in Galilee where he slayed those people.
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And they said, you know, was it their sins or what happened? And Jesus says, well, unless you repent, there's a condition.
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Unless you repent, you too likewise will perish. That's not what's said here. What's said here is you are now going to be hemmed in on every side.
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My coming has now been hidden from your eyes. And you and your children are going to be leveled to the ground.
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And not one stone on this city is going to be left on another. And that is exactly what does take place.
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Titus will come in some 40 years from now. And he will level the city.
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Now they do try to have some after that. Hadrian tries to give them some grace and let the
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Jewish people come back in. And them fools did the same thing again. They tried to raise up and fight against Rome.
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And Hadrian said, I'll have no part of it. He crushed the city to the ground. He burned it.
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He salted it. And then he said, oh, you know what? Because they hated the Philistines so much, I'm going to rename this place
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Palestine. So just to let you know, the Palestinian bologna is all comes from Rome naming it
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Palestine in 135. Had they had recognized that Jesus Christ had come to make for their peace.
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He offered them salvation. They didn't want his salvation.
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They wanted it their way. I do believe that was Judas's purpose. I believe that Judas thought he could force the hand of Christ to become the liberator by selling him in.
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Betraying him, forcing his hand to then now not become this meat mild savior.
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But then to maybe this will incite him now to fight. Because if you remember, I'm not a
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Judas sympathizer. But he did say when they came and got to him, he said, take him peaceably.
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Take care of him. He was not expecting them to beat Jesus to death.
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That was not his expectation. Matter of fact, when he saw that he did, it says that he didn't repent. He had remorse and he went out and hung himself.
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So I do believe there was a point where he thought, hey, I can force Jesus's hand into doing something. Look, you can't force
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God's hand into doing anything. You can't barter with God. Jesus came for a purpose.
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And it was to save that which was lost. And he saved it under his terms. He did come into this world to be a king.
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But his king was that was riding lowly and humbled and on a donkey. And that was coming to show humility.
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That was because he was coming as that suffering servant that the Old Testament had prophesied.
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That the Old Testament says this suffering servant must bear the sins of his people.
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He must bear the sins of the many that he may save the many. Many, code word, means elect.
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He was going to die for the sins of his people. And here it is, he came to the nation of Israel first.
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The ones who which did have the advantage of having the oracles of God given to them.
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They had every right and privilege to have the gifts, the law of God.
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And what did they do? They rejected it. And he says, because of that, you and your children.
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Oh, man, imagine that blow. It's one thing for you to suffer for your own consequences.
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It's another thing for it to be on your kids. And it would just be five days later from here.
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They will stand in front of Pilate, the religious leaders. And they will say, let the condemnation that we put on them and the responsibility for killing
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Jesus not only be on us, but on our children's children. And what does Jesus say right here? That's what you want, that's what
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I'm going to give you. And then he says, all of this will be because of this reason.
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Because you did not recognize the time of your visitation. All that the prophets had spoken of.
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Beginning in the book of Moses, in Genesis chapter 3, verse 15 on.
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The serpent crusher is coming. The serpent crusher is coming. And they had all of that redemptive revelation.
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All of the Old Testament, every prophet, everyone that bewailed over the city, that cried as Jeremiah, that proclaimed the word of God to both the northern and the southern kingdom.
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Like Isaiah, you had other ones that lived a life of an object lesson of either marrying a whore as Hosea did and lived that life out of the life of infidelity.
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And he said, this will be a picture of me towards my people. Or one like Ezekiel who said, hey, today your wife's going to die and you're not going to cry.
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Or some crazy stuff like Isaiah walk around naked and barefoot for three years or whatever long it was.
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These are the things that God had used to reveal to his people that his Messiah was coming.
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And when that Messiah came, it says here they did not recognize it. They did not recognize it the same way they did not recognize it when the time of Moses was there.
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When God had continually provided for them. And they bickered and they complained and they murmured.
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And God sent serpents to come out and bite and kill them or he would open up the ground and swallow them.
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They did not recognize the time of the visitation even then. And now that the incarnate son of God, the
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God in human flesh was standing before them. Hey, love incarnate was standing in front of them and they failed to see the time of his visitation.
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And because of that they would beat him. They would then staple him to a tree.
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And then thinking they had gotten rid of him. You can't get rid of God.
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You can run but you can't hide. And the great thing about the triumphal entry is there was really nothing triumphal about it till you see the cross.
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The cross which makes the entrance triumphal. Hey, I'll be honest with you.
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If Jesus doesn't resurrect, he basically is riding on a donkey to his funeral.
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But it's the resurrection that makes the triumph, that entry good.
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Why? Because he had defeated death, hell, the grave. Had satisfied the wrath of God.
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Don't like this word, most people don't. But he placated the wrath of God. That's exactly what he did.
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He placated. He took that wrath of God that was kindled against every person that would ever believe.
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And it was kindled against him. And Jesus Christ then bore that in his own body and in his own soul.
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And then he placated the wrath of God sending it away forever. But these people did not see the time of their visitation.
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Now, application ought to be clear. Have you rejected the time of God's visitation to you?
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Look, I know there's people in this room. Y 'all trifle with God. There's people here who play games with God.
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God ain't nothing to be played games with. Okay? You don't make terms with God on your conditions.
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Look, God, I'll do this, I'll do that. No, no, no, no. It's his terms. It's his terms.
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And you know what those terms are? Just come to me. Keith says it week in and week out. Come unto me, all you who are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
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Come unto me, all you who are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. How many times, young person, old person, whichever category you sit in here, have you heard the word of God week in and week out, and you still have a heart obstinate towards him?
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I can't see your heart. Only God can. But you know in your heart if you are following God.
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You know in your own heart if Christ is supreme in your life. You know in your heart if the word of God has any significance and any fear in you.
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We just preached a conference on the fear of the
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Lord. I'm not going to ask you to raise your hand, but do you fear the word of God?
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This text right here should incite fear. Because you see what he did to the people that he came to who rejected him.
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So for the unbeliever, don't miss that time of visitation. The scripture says today is the day of salvation.
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Today. As long as it is still today, today. Do not harden your heart as they did in the day of the provocation.
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That's what it says in the book of Hebrews. Do not harden your heart. If you hear God's voice, do not harden your heart.
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And if you're not hearing his voice, listen to what I'm saying. Today is the day of salvation.
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There is no other way of salvation other than that in Christ Jesus. And if you do not repent of your sins and turn to him, you would forever be lost.
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Now to the believer. You be sitting here today and you've been playing games with God.
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You check all the right boxes, do all the right things. But there is no true desire to follow him.
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Or as Andy said this morning, to press on. There's no true desire to walk with him.
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Well, what has happened in your heart? What has happened in your life that has made
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Christ not appealing anymore? Look, let's be honest with one another. Not everybody's zeal for the word of God and the zeal to follow him is always at the same in our
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Christian walk. And if anybody's here and gonna say, Hey, I've been on a straight trajectory up since I got saved.
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You probably need to check yourself. Because that's not how the Christian walk is. It's up and down.
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But if you're staying in the valley because you have an unrepentant heart. Today is the day to repent.
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Today is the day to turn from living your way and go back and live
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God's way. You know what, as a believer, and I'm gonna shut up here in a second. As a believer, we are without excuse to walk with God.
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Without excuse. We have the Holy Spirit living inside of us.
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To where before we were saved, I could not do anything but sin. I licked up sin like a dog licks up water.
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With no conscience. Ask my wife. No conscience. Now when
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I sin, it bothers me. Now when
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I sin, it hurts. Now when I sin, I go, Jesus bled and died for that.
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Why wouldn't I just come to Him? He's already paid for. Just come. He said, look, you have an advocate with the
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Father. If you confess your sins, He will be faithful and just to forgive you of all your sins and cleanse you from all unrighteousness.
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That's to the believer. We often use that for the unbeliever. That is to the believer.
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Because John says, I write unto you little children. That you have an advocate.
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So I ask you. If you're holding on to any sin in your heart.
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Let it go. Because the time of your visitation is short.
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God is not obligated to continue to prick your heart.
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God is not under any obligation to continue to let you feel the prompting of the
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Holy Spirit. We're fixing to take the table. He said,
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Mike, I'm not sure if I believe what you just said. Okay. We're fixing to take the table. And we have clear instructions for people that did not repent and took of the table.
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He said, some of you are dead because of it. So if you think that God is going to overlook the sin in the life of the believer, you are sadly mistaken.
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Just like He will not overlook the sin in the life of the unbeliever.
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The only two things is, you can have temporal punishment or eternal punishment.
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The men are fixing to come forward. I'm going to pray. And I would ask that as the men will begin to pass out the elements.
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That you check yourself. Examine yourself. Look into your own heart. Look, the heart's deceitful above all things.
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And it's desperately wicked. Who can know it? Only God. So ask
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God. Examine my heart. And see if there be any unclean thing in me.
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Father God, thank you for your word. Father, thank you for your son and his steadfast setting.
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His face like flint to Jerusalem in that last week. He did not fumble his words.
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He did not turn to the left or to the right. But he set forth to do the purpose for which you had sent him.
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And Father, that was to come and die. It was to come and die and pay the sins for his people.
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Providing justification through his resurrection to all that would believe. Father God, thank you that we have your word.
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Thank you that, as I said earlier, it is forever settled in heaven. That we don't have to guess what you're saying.
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It's very clear. Father, I pray that we would examine our hearts.
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That we would then repent of those things that we need to repent of. And for the unbeliever, that they would turn to you today.