IS IT TIME FOR TEARS?

Today is Palm Sunday.

Palm Sunday commemorates Christ’s last week on Earth as He rides into Jerusalem prior to His crucifixion. Luke 19:37-41.

I want us to examine Palm Sunday through the eyes of Christ. As Jesus rode into Jerusalem, He experienced a wave of emotions.

Luke 19:37–38 “And when he was come nigh, even now at the descent of the mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen; Saying, Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest.”

Luke 19:39–41 “And some of the Pharisees from among the multitude said unto him, Master, rebuke thy disciples. And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out. And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it,”

In an incredibly emotional scene, Jesus took the time to weep, to grieve, for Jerusalem. Bible scholars say that verse 41 means Christ sobbed uncontrollably over Jerusalem.

When was the last time you wept uncontrollably over a lost soul or a lost nation?

God knows we have enough to weep over in America. Traditional values and morality are under attack, and souls are dying and going to Hell. Regardless of what society condones, there is a right, and there is a wrong. In God’s eyes what many Americans condone, God condemns. God says that homosexuality is an abomination, yet you cannot watch a movie or TV series without that blasphemous abomination being shoved down your throat.

Did you know that most under the age of 35, 85%, see nothing wrong with homosexuality? Well, let me just say, the majority opinion does not matter if it goes against what God says.

Can I say this? Homosexuality is a grave sin, and it, like all sin, leads a person straight to Hell, but there seems to be tragic consequences associated with sexual deviance.

Romans 1:26–27 “For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.”

Romans 1:28 “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;”

The number of sexually transmitted diseases and the number of cases of sexually transmitted diseases have skyrocketed since the early 1970s, and Christians need to be weeping over it. Do you know what is really tragic? And this is why we need to bee weeping. I am here wanting to talk about salvation, but I have to take time out of a sermon to let our young people know, specifically, that homosexuality is a sin, a sin that leads to Hell.

No matter what the school system says, no matter what society says, and no matter what entertainment says, God says that homosexuality is a sin, and Christians need to be weeping over the curse of that particular sin that is sweeping our nation. If you are a practicing homosexual, let me tell you what you need. You need Jesus while He can be found before it is too late, and He hands you over to the immoral desires of your flesh.

We, in America, need to be weeping and urgently praying for our nation and our children, but not only our nation, we need to be weeping for all lost people. Do you know what is awaiting a lost person? AN eternity in Hell is awaiting the lost.

Maybe if we were heartbroken over the lost and shed tears as Jesus did as He entered Jerusalem, we would be more urgent and more tenacious in sharing the gospel.

Don’t get me wrong. The Christian life is a life of incredible joy, and we are always to rejoice in the Lord. I have been to the state tournament in every sport I have coached, but nothing matched the excitement I felt Sunday night as our young people shared their experiences from the Youth Evangelism Conference. Nothing matches the excitement I felt as I talked to Coach Tom Mathis from Dyersburg sharing with me how two young men came to Christ as the gospel was share with them by former Trojan baseball player Tyler Childress.

Coach Mathis and I have both won many baseball games in our careers, but nothing matches the excitement of someone coming to Jesus; however, the Christian life is to be a life of tears too.

Jesus wept tears of sympathy at the grave of Lazarus. Jesus wept tears of agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, and as He entered Jerusalem, He wept tears of urgency.

As Jesus entered Jerusalem, He was greeted with shouts of praise: “Blessed be the king that cometh in the name of the Lord; peace in Heaven, and glory in the Highest.” That sounds great. If I were Jesus, I would have dislocated my shoulder patting myself on the back. I would have been Ric Flair strutting with a WOO here and a WOO there, but Jesus wept uncontrollably.

What they were shouting was nothing to celebrate as Jesus sobbed great tears. Why did Jesus weep so? Why was it time for tears? What caused Jesus to weep should cause every Christian here this morning from the youngest Christian here, Griffin, to the oldest, Billy.

1. Jesus wept because of their superficial religion.

Luke 19:37–38 “And when he was come nigh, even now at the descent of the mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen; Saying, Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest.”

Jesus wept because of their superficial religion. You will miss this if you are not careful.

What do you notice about verse 38? Did they worship Jesus as the Great I AM? NO!!!! They worshipped Him because He came in the name of the Lord.

They failed the great litmus test.

1 John 4:15 “Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God.”

If a person does not worship Jesus Christ as the Son of God, he or she is religious but not saved. If you do not read the entire passage of Luke 19, you will miss the lack of depth in their religion. (verses 45-46)

Luke 19:45–46 “And he went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold therein, and them that bought; Saying unto them, It is written, My house is the house of prayer: but ye have made it a den of thieves.”

The same crowd that was shouting Hail Him! Hail Him! would be in a few days shouting Nail Him! Nail Him! They had just praised Him but immediately went and desecrated the Temple.

Dear friend, are you guilty of that? Do you say Hail Him! Hail Him! on Sunday, and on Monday, you declare nail Him! nail Him! by your actions?

Jesus was riding into Jerusalem to be the Passover Lamb, but they did not recognize who He was. To them, it was a ceremony, a church service, but they missed the substance and hung the Son of God on a Cross. Jesus wept over people that had a superficial religion, a fake Christianity.

Fake Christianity is not sincere; it will provide no excuses for you. (Matt. 7:22-23).

Matthew 7:22–23 “Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”

You can do many great things in the name of the Lord but not know Jesus as the Son of God who came in the flesh to die for your sins.

Jesus wept over Jerusalem? Would He weep over America and America’s superficial religion?

Can I tell you this? America does not need religion. America needs to realize who Jesus is, the Son of God. America needs Jesus, and if America came to Jesus, sin that is strutting in the sunshine today would shrink back into the shadows. Sins such as homosexuality and an open disregard for the God of the Universe.

People in Crockett, Dyer, and Lauderdale Counties need Jesus, not religion. Jesus gets you to Heaven. Religion sends you to Hell. If what broke Jesus’s heart would break our hearts, we might turn this tri-county area upside down for Jesus.

Jesus wept because of their superficial religion.

2. Jesus wept because of their passing opportunity.

Luke 19:42 “Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes.”

Luke 19:44 “And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.”

God has harvest times, and the time of the harvest passes some by.

Jesus wept because Jerusalem missed the time of the Savior’s visitation.

Did you know that Jerusalem knew exactly when Messiah was going to ride into Jerusalem?

483 years earlier, Daniel prophesied that the Messiah would be in Jerusalem at this exact moment.

Daniel 9:24 “Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.

Daniel 9:25 “Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.”

Daniel 9:26 “And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.”

This prophecy began in 445 BC when the command was given to rebuild Jerusalem. The prophecy stopped as Jesus Christ rode into Jerusalem to finish the transgression, to pay for the sins of the people.

The Jews of Jerusalem, who so proudly waited for the Messiah, knew exactly when He was going to ride into Jerusalem, but they missed the time of His visitation. Everything about Jesus had been prophesied, including how He was to be born, and how He would arrive in Jerusalem, yet the Jews missed the obvious.

In Noah’s day, there was a day of harvest. Year after year, while Noah and his sons were building the Ark as the noise of hammers echoed in the background, Noah preached God’s wrath that awaited on the horizon.

As Noah preached, the doors of mercy were wide open as God had not yet closed the door, but people did not come. They missed the time of God’s visitation. Finally, the harvest time arrived as God’s mercy gave way to His wrath, and the only people secure in God’s mercy were Noah and his family.

Today, this generation has more opportunity than any other generation regarding exposure to the gospel, yet this generation is letting the harvest pass, and we should be weeping as Jesus wept.

God has displayed incredible patience toward the United States of America, and I believe it is because of the church and the large number of Jews living here.

As a nation, we thumb our noses at God. All of our institutions are an abomination before God.

Marriage has been defiled as God’s original intent was for one man to marry one woman is under attack as God never condoned a man marrying another man. As a matter of fact, God said in His Law to drag both out and stone them both.

Today, people brazenly parade that “alternate” lifestyle for the world to see right in front of the glaring eyes of God Almighty.

It is not only marriage that is crumbling. Government, education, finances and the church are crumbling. All may recognize Jesus as a man but not as the Son of God who has the power to transform lives. The Church should have great power, but it is quickly turning into a powerless institution.

2 Timothy 3:1–2 “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,”

2 Timothy 3:3–4 “Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;”

2 Timothy 3:5 “Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.”

I do not care if an organization or denomination or whatever it wants to call itself, calls itself a church yet openly supports what God condemns, it does not know Jesus, and whatever they do in the name of the Lord, Jesus is going to say one of these days depart from me I never knew you.

Jesus would be weeping, but are we? You can say you love America, but do you love America enough to get down on your knees and pour your heart in humility before God Almighty in prayer?

Do you know who else needs to be weeping as Jesus wept that day? Parents and grandparents.

Parents and grandparents need to be weeping over the opportunities to come to Jesus that are passing their children by.

In a Texas survey of 10,000 born-again Christians that I found, only 8% of those surveyed said they were saved after the age of 20. More than half of that 10,000 were saved before the age of 15.

Ecclesiastes 12:1 “Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them;”

Listen to me young person. As each day passes, your youth passes by with it. Parents need to wake up. Each day that passes your child by is an opportunity your child missed to be saved, and you do not know how many opportunities that child is going to get?

Are you heartbroken over that? Are you nonchalant about it? “Oh, Little Sam will get saved in his own time.” That’s the attitude of the Jews that day as Jesus rode into Jerusalem, and they missed the time of Jesus’s visitation.

3. CONCLUSION.

Will you get saved while you have the opportunity?

Do you know without a shadow of a doubt that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who came to be born in the flesh of a virgin named Mary?

Do you know without a shadow of doubt that He lived a sinless life and died for your sins?

Do you know without a shadow of a doubt that Jesus Christ rose on the third day and is alive today?

If you said yes to my questions, you need to confess what you believe, come forward, and follow through in believer’s baptism as an act of obedience to the One who made your salvation possible.