Luke 19:28-48, How Does God Come to You?

Luke chapter 19 verses 28 to 48 Hear the word of the Lord and when he had said these things he went on ahead going up to Jerusalem When he drew near to Bethphage and Bethany the mount that is called

Olivet He sent two of his disciples saying go into the village in front of you where on entering you will find a colt tied on Which no one has ever yet set untie it and bring it here

If anyone asks you why are you untying it you shall say this the

Lord has need of it So those who were sent went away and found it just as he had told them and as they were untying the colt its owners said to them why are you untying the colt and they said the

Lord has need of it and they brought it to Jesus and Throwing their cloaks on the colt They set

Jesus on it and as he rode along they spread their cloaks on the road as he was drawing near Already on the way down the

Mount of Olives The whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise

God with a loud voice For all the mighty works that they had seen saying 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 of the crowd said to him

Teacher rebuke your disciples. He answered I tell you if these were silent the very stones would cry out

And when he drew near and saw the city he wept over it saying would that you even you

Had known on this day the things that make for peace, but now they are hidden from your eyes for the days will come upon you when your enemies will set up our barricade around you and Surround you and him you in on every side and tear you down to the ground and your children within you and they will not leave one stone upon another in you because you did not know the time of your visitation and He entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold saying to them it is written my house shall be a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of robbers and He was teaching daily in the temple the chief priests and the scribes and the principal men of the city were seeking to destroy him

But they did not find anything they could do for all the people were hanging on his words

May the Lord add his blessings for the reading of his Holy Word Well, I hope you all had a good

Thanksgiving Even if it was smaller than usual I hope you all though at least those of you who whose first language is

English got to watch my video on Thanksgiving and have A clear idea now what Thanksgiving is about it wasn't for thanking the

Indians, although they may have been invited to the original Thanksgiving's plural and the

Puritans would have thanked God for the help they got from them I think one of the things that people today would find strange about the original

Thanksgiving's is that they weren't on a set day of the year when they weren't scheduled in like you know the fourth

Thursday of November, but they were in response to Whatever events were happening.

They were something good happened. They called a day of Thanksgiving now if we were still a Puritan country we'd almost certainly have called a day or two or three or more of fasting and repentance because Earlier this year because of kovat and seen it as an affliction from God and maybe now by November Call the day of Thanksgiving that this plague has not turned out nearly as bad as we feared last spring

If you remember last last March People were predicting in fact some of the models showed that there would be two million

Americans Killed from the kovat. I believe that was by the end of April.

Of course, it didn't turn out nearly that bad There are probably three effective vaccines about to be released Hopefully and the disease itself kovat 19 is not nearly as deadly as we feared last spring last spring

I got an article published with the gospel coalition about how the Puritans developed the first inoculations for smallpox

And I originally wrote in my first draft that I sent into them that kovat had a fatality rate of between one low of 1 % to 7 % of high because that's what

I could find from any reliable sources out there scientific sources But the editors decided to go with the official

CDC fatality rate, which at that time was five point seven percent I kind of argued with them about that a little bit, you know saying hey

I think that's a little high But the editors have the last word editors always have the last word as Mary will tell you and so I'm in print though now

I'm not sure what to make of it. Now. I'm in it's preserved there in print Someone's going to read it for 20 years from now saying that the fatality rate for kovat is five point seven percent while last

September It was down to reported 0 .6 percent and will probably go further down because of the new medicines that have been developed and all of that Is something we should be thankful for?

You know a lot of this I mean I know the media is always it does it about everything because it sells to make things seem worse and horrible than it appears make

Yes any day I was gonna get worse and they've done that certainly with with kovat but you know there are things about this that are

Things to be thankful for You ever considered it considering what it was predicted to be?

Well Thanksgiving is now over and so with Black Friday comes Christmas season now many traditional liturgical

Churches today, which is the fourth Sunday from Christmas before Christmas Begins what they call

Advent, which is the build -up to Christmas now I'm a kind of ambivalent about that like the reform tradition is itself

There are different views on that among reform people in continental Europe they seem to be fine with it

I guess at least over the past few centuries the hymnal I use for most of our Psalms from the

Christian Reform Church Which was originally the Dutch Reform Church obviously from the Netherlands has a whole section of Advent hymns

We'd call them Christmas carols, but the reform movement that comes from the Puritans which we are all eagerly studying now right that movement the

Puritans was opposed to all such things because they were trying to purify themselves of all the

Traditions that were still clung to by the Anglican Church the Church of England of course many

Christian today I think today Christians look back on that and just find that utterly bizarre

But why would you be opposed to Christmas, and I think that's because Christians today are battling

Secularist who are trying to take God out of everything and so Christian today that assume

That any mention of God any mention of Christ is a good thing and so they think well

Let's take advantage of this opportunity about to talk about you know the reason for the season But I'm not so sure

I think that this exaggerated importance of Christmas in our culture Which is really mostly for commercial reasons

I can understand we want to take advantage of it, but understand that's the main reason for the secular season is to sell stuff this exaggerated importance has totally warped many people's view of Who Jesus is and what he does?

You know when basically all that many people out there They don't go to church often and many people hear about Jesus Maybe they do go to church around Christmas time, but all they hear about Jesus is that he was born

And that he was a baby. What do you think of Jesus? Who do they think of Jesus has? It's a baby

So we have the intentionally ridiculous scene of course at a comedy movie Talladega Nights in which the main character a redneck

NASCAR driver prays before a meal to Baby Jesus, and I wasn't too surprised, but I did learn just this past week that yes in some

Catholic traditional prayers They will pray to the infant Jesus as though somehow

He is eternally an infant. I guess I Guess they assume that since Christmas is is

God coming to us and That he came as an infant as a baby Then they think of God as a baby

How does God come to us? Well for the past three weeks We've been seeing how we come to God and now we see in this passage how

God Comes to us and we see that here in four parts He comes first peacefully second sovereignly then purifying

Lee and finally impressively Well, how does God come to us?

Well first he comes? Peacefully here we reach the end of what in Luke is

Jesus's long Pilgrimage to Jerusalem now in recent that is 20th century

Chinese history In Chinese history, they mark Mao's Long March in which in from 1934 to 1935

He led his army for about five thousand six hundred miles. That's a really long March Over a more a little more than a year.

It took him and it's such a major event The Chinese even named a rocket after it.

There were the rocket is the Long March Here in Luke the Lord Jesus has been on a Long March.

It's on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem from chapter 9 Where it says he set his face to go to Jerusalem to here in this chapter so everything from Luke chapter 9 to here in chapter 19 is

This pilgrim is this Long March of Jesus to Jerusalem and he taught about how just before this we saw last week that he's like a king elect a nobleman going to a far city to to get authority to become a king

That he was teaching that the kingdom of God is not coming fully physically Politically on earth yet But that he's going on an even longer

March. He's saying to heaven before coming back again Here as soon as he has finished teaching that That he's going on this

Long March in the parable of the minus in Jericho This is a few hours away by foot.

He goes on ahead to Jerusalem So this is all of the last day of that Long March And as he's getting closer entering the villages just on the outskirts of the city

Bethphage and Bethany, you know If we were in Israel, we knew the geography we would know. Yeah, we know exactly where that place is

That's right outside the city, you know, like Providence is to Danville. It's just right on the outskirts right on the edge entering villages there and Coming to the

Mount of Olives the what Luke calls the Mount that is called Olivet which gives him a view It's on the mountains above Jerusalem.

So it gives him a view and so there's Jerusalem below in the little valley laid out before him and He gets ready for his grand entrance and he sends two disciples ahead to get his ride and he tells them, you know

Go into the next village Where on entering you will find a cult tide. It's the cult of a donkey a young male donkey

It's never been ridden yet. So it's like it's been set apart for the special use Jesus tells them that if the owners ask

You know, hey, what are you doing with my donkey? To say the Lord has need of it It appears that Jesus supernaturally knew that there would be a cult there

It would and it would belong to the kind of people, you know Some people would get mad you can't take my donkey but belong to the kind of people you've got a generous

Okay, you could go use it. They're gonna bring it back. I'm sure you can use it for this for the Lord here

Of course, they mean the Lord Jesus. That's exactly what happened and they brought it to Jesus They put their cloaks on it as a saddle and then at the end of verse 35

They notice they they set Jesus on it now, I'm sure with his permission

But notice that they put him on the donkey We might think that riding a donkey is a lowly humbling way

To travel that's the way some of us think some people think well, that's that's lowly as condescending but for them not so It was a sign of royalty of coming royalty coming peacefully not ferociously on a war horse

If he'd come on a horse that would have the sign of he's coming to he's coming to make war

But he comes on a donkey horses were seen as animals for war donkeys were for peace Donkeys walk, you know donkeys walk peacefully, but they walk peacefully smoothly

Deadly probably easier to stay on that horse It's probably the animal you could get on if it never been ridden before it doesn't freak out and try to buck you off It just goes right along as Jesus rode along with a tremendous entourage of disciples who were just caught up in this excitement

They spread out their cloaks on the road before him so that it was as if he was entering on carpet

Even his way into Jerusalem is gentle Carpeted as he's riding down into Jerusalem from Mount of Olives this multitude of his disciples and disciples

It doesn't just mean the twelve apostles But there's hundreds of others who have been hearing him teach and seeing his miracles.

They just began to celebrate This was the day they thought he's gonna take over. He's gonna rule. This is the kingdom of God is now here

They rejoice they praise God. We know from the other Gospels that they were shouting Hosanna. We save now here

Luke It's blessed as the king Bring it. He's bringing in the kingdom of God now.

He's taking over. He's ruling today Now a major false doctrine that gets taught commonly today is that Jesus came offering the kingdom to the

Jews But they didn't want it They rejected Jesus as their king and and so because of that Jesus turned to the

Gentiles who made up the gospel for us But we see in John chapter 6 with the Jews tried to make

Jesus hit their king after he fed the 5 ,000 But he got away from them and we see here

That that's not true Here they are so excited and they're so happy precisely because They want him to take over and become king like like David they want him to sit on the throne and Rule, they had seen his miracles at the end of verse 37.

They they thought now was the time for him To become the king so they cry out in verse 38

Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord He is the king and they were right about that.

Their words are true, but they didn't understand what he first Came to do they didn't understand how

God came to them That's because they didn't understand what they needed as Jesus says in verse 41.

They didn't know the things that make for peace What do you need?

for peace peace Not just a lack of conflict like maybe you're you know, you're at peace with your next -door neighbor

You never fight with him, but that's because you don't hardly know them You don't you don't have hardly any interaction with them.

You maybe see them out mowing their grass you wave But that's about it. It's the way many people many of us are about our neighbors You know, you don't have any relationship with it, but that's not really what he means by peace

No, I don't mean just that I mean peace as a fulfillment a harmony the full life

You want what makes for that kind of peace? Is it money?

If you have enough money, you'll be fulfilled, right? So you get to buy the things you want The big house you want the nice car you want and you get to retire and go on cruises

Every year maybe several times a year or how about politics, you know looking at some people's Facebook pages this

Recently in the past few weeks It seems that having the right political leaders the right president is what it takes to fulfill you to get peace

Is it really or is it the relationship? Yeah, I won't be happy until I have my soulmate

Many think today. Well the meaning of life They think is about getting that right relationship and everything

In our culture everything even God exists to make that possible

What does it take? For you to have peace Well here the irony

Jerusalem Literally means the city of peace Jesus sees before him the city of peace and he says

You don't know the things that make for peace He's going into it. He's hailed by the crowd like many today think that the right politics is what makes for peace

Blessed is the king They want him to be king. They're convinced their need is a good government and Jesus will bring that and he certainly would

If that were really What brought them peace? Many Americans today are convinced that the right relationship will be what brings them peace finally fulfillment

You know the soulmate and they'll they'll go from relationship to relationship never questioning

The basic belief that that is what makes for peace. Oh, there's a pot of gold always just over the rainbow They think some churches even appeal to such people offering the secrets of a healthy relationship principles for a good marriage

You're trying to give the people what they want to hear. That's what they want to hear Christ They say will give you the relationship and so you'll find you'll finally have peace, but it's still the relationship that they

Did it they think is bringing them peace not Christ Questions is helping them get it. Of course many think it well, it's money

They're convinced that they have enough money in the bank. They get nice enough a house They drive enough of a luxury car or go on exorbitant enough vacations often enough finally, that'll be what makes for peace and And maybe they get it

And they still can't figure out Why their kids are so greedy for their money, but they still don't have peace what makes for peace

Well here the people are wrong about what makes for peace Now the words are right

But their motivation is wrong. They think it's they think it's just politics. It's about making

Israel great again power success But the words are right, even if their hearts are wrong.

Yes Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord. Absolutely. That's right Jesus is the

King then peace in heaven and glory in the highest By the way, do those words sound at all for bigger peace in heaven and glory in the highest

Vaguely sound like something else. So ring a bell a phrase like it anyway glory peace the highest

All being exclaimed about Jesus How about like from Luke like earlier in his book announcing

Jesus? Anybody ah Yes, the angels right

Luke chapter 2 verse 14 on a lot of Christmas cards at the

Nativity. They were announcing Glory to God in the highest they usually strike out the glory to God part

But whatever peace on earth goodwill to men, but glory to God in the highest Peace among those whom he is well pleased the angels declared it first here.

It's echoed by the crowd Is it here? It's not about of course the baby

Jesus It wasn't really about the baby Jesus in chapter 2 verse 14 But about what Jesus came to do and he didn't come just to be a baby

This is the fulfillment of the angelic announcement at his birth

He came to bring Peace, how does God come to us?

He comes peacefully and Peacemaking Lee what makes for peace?

Well ask I guess first what makes for non -peace the opposite of peace is it because of incompetence or unjust leaders?

systemic injustice Phrase being thrown around a lot today is it because we're poor is that that's is that it?

That's if you only get that solved. There's poor people So that's unjust and so if we can solve that we'll have justice.

Well, I did peace no justice. No peace, right? Is it because we don't have a sweet relationship?

That's that's our need. Those are all problems not Minimizing them are saying those aren't we should just ignore them.

No, but those aren't the main problem our main first problem is

That we are sinners in the hands of an angry God. We have infuriated him.

We've insulted his glory we've tried to make him serve us like by making making us rich or Making our relationships better.

That's what he's there for right? He's not gonna do that for us. What good is he? We need first peace with God or else

He will come to us Like that King remember at the end of the parable of the minus he will come to us

Slaughtering the rebels That's what Jesus comes for To bring us peace

What makes for peace? Religious leaders, they don't know They hear the commotion, you know glory peace the highest it's all about Jesus and they are upset

They are these disciples they're disturbing the peace They thought this cry about Jesus being the king that could get to the

Romans the Romans could hear about this and they could come and Destroy us all they thought They were the guardians of peace

They thought No, they were just the guardians of the status quo. They tell Jesus here teacher rabbi

Rebuke your disciples and he says I tell you if these were silent the very stones

Would cry out What they are declaring is so true, even if their understanding of it is deficient

But what they're declaring is so true So necessary to declare that if people don't do it the creation itself will have to What they are saying is how

God? Comes to us as the king glorious bringing

Peace How does God Come to you He comes sovereignly starting in chapter are starting in verse 41

Jesus has been descending from the Mount of Olives on a donkey with the city of Jerusalem in his view and As he comes near the gates with the people crying out glory.

Peace in heaven Hailing him as the king you're echoing that really fulfilling the declaration of the angels at his birth he wept over Jerusalem He weeps over the problem.

We've already seen the problem of not knowing what makes for peace Would that you even you had known on this day?

the things that make for peace Because they don't Because they think it's the political changes that he can make like today when something pieces the politics or the relationship

They think Jesus can bring not Jesus himself and reconciling us to God or like the Pharisees here and the status quo

They think they can preserve so that they will try to kill Jesus to get peace. They don't know

So they won't have peace And so he weeps over them

Jesus wept He mourned he sorrowed for them it wasn't like a single tear trickling down from one eye

But the Greek there with a quick word could mean that he wailed aloud all the people around him were rejoicing

It says the verse 37, but now he sorrows for the people of that city what an odd mixture think of the scene what a

What a strange mixture of things that going on at the same time People hailing him there's joy all around there's exuberance.

There's a loud exclamation There's cheering and then interrupted by these gloomy

Pharisees Then there's more cheering as Jesus tells the people. Well, you have to cry out or the rocks will

Glory, there's peace There's the highest there's echoes of the angels and then

Jesus mourns Someone say well see

He mourns because they are doing what he has not willed. They are going against his will

They have free will and they've chosen to rebel. Well, that's partly true

God commands them Bless the one who comes in the name of the Lord here

Jesus he comes in the name of the Lord bless him hail him Worship him. Don't don't reject him.

Don't kill him lift up your heads Oh you gates you leaders of the city That the king of glory

Jesus himself may come in from Psalm 24. That's God's command his will of command

Why didn't they obey it? Well, someone say well because they chose to yeah.

Okay, of course. Yeah, they chose not to obey it But why did they choose that?

What they just did free will ah But Jesus says at the end of verse 242 But now they

That is the things that make for peace Christ himself those things He says are hidden are hidden from your eyes

They can't see that accepting That's submitting to Jesus as the kind of king that he says he is is what makes for peace

Why can't they see it? It is hidden from their eyes Well hidden by who?

Who is hiding the things? That make for peace Christ himself who is hiding

Who is hiding them from them? It's in the passive voice. It's a verb hidden with the one doing the action the subject here the hider

Left implied for the third week in a row. We see another member Key divine passive we saw the same word in chapter 18 verse 34 where Jesus predicted his humiliation and torture and death and Resurrection and he said it is plain as day

I mean he just spelled it out for them But somehow the disciples didn't understand and they didn't understand it because it said the passage says it had been hidden from them

God hid it because he chose not to reveal it yet Here Here in this passage

It should be as plain as day just as plain to these people that Jesus is what makes for peace

He may be a different kind of king than you expect but submit to his kingship.

That should be obvious But it was hidden from them God is hiding it from them because God is sovereign over those who do and Do not accept

Jesus But someone say yeah, but he weeps over the consequences of them not accepting him

Okay, how could he weep over something that you're saying? He he decreed should happen. Oh, yes, because that's the kind of Savior He is he hides and weeps that they can't find

What's been hidden here? Peace He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked

He desires in one way that all repent and believe but he's doesn't he doesn't will or that he's a he doesn't decree

That all believe his will of decree is that some not see That Jesus is what makes for peace

He hides that from some He comes to us

Sovereignly But someone say but but that's not fair. Oh You don't want fairness

Fairness is the last thing you want if he's going to be fair, you know He could condemn us all to hell that would be fair.

It would be just and chooses sovereignly to save some To be amazingly gracious to some

So he won't have to weep over all chooses to be just To some and that they get what they deserve and he chooses to be gracious to others

So they won't be destroyed like these people here Now most of the these people in this city and their children will be destroyed because of the decision they make this week

They reject Jesus and so in about 40 years the Romans came They lay siege the

Romans laid siege to the city. They killed the people by the tens of thousands They made so many crosses in which they put crucified

Jews that they ran out of wood They tore down the walls every stone of that city the temple itself

He burned everything to the ground that would burn every rock. They could tear down they tore down They killed everyone they could get a hold of Jesus sees this coming weeps over it

Sees this disaster coming to the city because these people would not know what makes for peace

He sees it coming. He weeps and in verse 44. He says it's all because You did not know the time of your visitation the time

When God came to them when is the time

God came to them? Now precisely now

With Jesus entering the gates on a donkey proclaimed King by his disciples

Peace glory in the highest the angels announcement is fulfilled now

What do you do? Recognize when God has visited you

We often try to make him come on our times You know at our beck and call

Maybe at an altar call set the environment just right or at a sacrament as As if he is under our control.

We say the right words. He has to show up or on our schedule on a calendar Baby, Jesus comes every

Christmas time but he comes to us as the sovereign

The one who is in control Recognize that How does

God Come to you You know quickly now in two brief final parts.

He comes to us Purifying Lee like he came to the temple here in verse 45.

He comes into the temple and he sees the outer area Which is supposed to be for the Gentiles to pray and instead he sees there is an open market

There's the money changers there's animals on sale for sacrifice and get oil whatever other things you might need for the temple

They were on sale there and being it of course being in the right place That's the perfect place you want to sell that kind of stuff.

They could mark up their goods profiteer Effectively stealing from their customers because it was too difficult to get what they needed elsewhere

Profiteering is charging more because you control the market is theft and it's immoral and he

Jesus purified the temple of it Here here Jesus calls them calls them robbers

My house he says She'll be a house of prayer How can people pray, you know when bargaining and barking and bickering is going on get your lambs here

Got the best lambs here He wants people to pray So Jesus purifies the temple

How does God come to us? He comes Purifying Lee Here instead of being a place where God is worshipped

It had become a place where where prophets are made where people serve mammon not God his house now

Is the church not a building but the gathering of his people? He still expects it to be a place for prayer or perhaps a people of prayer.

So we pray now. I know Wednesday nights We we don't turn it into a show For our entertainment and so we hire the best entertainer who turns this

Church into his or her cash cow we don't turn it into something to advance ourselves to show off or support our politics or make business contacts or get votes

God will come to his church and purify it of those who use it for their profit or their ego

He comes Purifying Lee, how does

God come to us? But he comes peacefully sovereignly purifying

Lee and Finally in those last few verses he comes impressively

That is impressing people With his teaching with his authority

The way he just defies This world his powers his expectations, it's pragmatism.

I mean why not sell stuff right in the temple? It's convenient. It's only practical to put it right there

He cleanses the temple and then sets up their teaching impressively drawing a crowd He just moves right in and takes over as though he owns the place

Well because he does Meanwhile the chief priests who thought they were in control of the temple

The teachers and the leaders were conspiring to kill him They thought they were what made for peace and that Jesus Jesus was disturbing the peace keep in mind that these money changers and Money sellers and those other people that Jesus drove out.

They almost certainly had to pay rent to set up there I mean surely they did right?

they got to give something back to the priests that were in charge kick back go Commission something and Jesus driving the merchants out hit the the priests the leaders hit him in the pocketbook and the ego

They're thinking Who do you think you are? Coming here taking over like that driving out our we're making a lot of money off those guys driving them out

Well, he got away with it for a while because he impressed the people in this afterglow of his triumphal entry

Jesus was and is Impressive sure as Isaiah said he was despised and rejected in and we esteemed him not but that's evidence about us

Not about his impressiveness He wasn't the the swaggering kind who boasted to have how he wins all the time

He didn't have to do that because he was just so impressive After the seven of them out the people were amazed at his authority here that they are wrapped by his his impressiveness and the the leaders

Yes, they were they were so hanging the people were so hanging on his words The leaders can't move against him even though he's right there in the temple in the heart of their territory

You know, they have their own temple guards that they could unleash on him But because here says all the people they hung on his words

They couldn't do a thing and if he hides that impressiveness From us if he hides that glory then

We esteem him not we slink away and Become like most of the people here

Who began the week by hanging on his every word? but by the end of the week

Many of them were shouting Crucify him heckling him mocking him as he drags across through the city

If he hides his impressiveness from us We can't see that glory anymore.

Maybe today We slink away from his house and we think the things that make for our peace

They're the money we can make that the power that we or our favorite politician can get or that The thing that makes for pieces that relationship their culture tells us is the meaning of life

Or we might not physically leave his house the church, but we try to turn it into something that serves our love of money our politics our idol of romance

Like those merchants in the temple when we try to use his house for ourselves We might be too bored with his word to care either way

It's all because We are no longer impressed with him. We're not wrapped By him anymore.

We're bored. And so we're not hanging on his every word anymore How does

God Come to you He will come to you as someone

Overwhelmingly Impressive whose every word captures your attention

He comes purifying Not not late not leaving you just content to To live for money or things or self -promotion or advancing your politics.

He comes sovereignly not at your beck and call Under your control if you say the magic words on your schedule, he comes as the king hiding or Revealing as he wills and he comes peacefully making peace between you the infuriating sinner and a holy

God He comes as the one who makes peace satisfaction fulfillment for you and so When he comes to you

You cannot but help Announce declare lest the rocks do it for you

Blessed is my king peace in heaven and on earth and glory in the highest that's