The Kingdom of God (5)

Please stand for the reading of Scripture. We read about the Triumphal Entry from the Gospel of Luke - Luke 19:29-44

Luke 19:29–44 CSB

As he approached Bethphage and Bethany, at the place called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of the disciples and said, “Go into the village ahead of you. As you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it. If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ say this: ‘The Lord needs it.’ ” So those who were sent left and found it just as he had told them. As they were untying the colt, its owners said to them, “Why are you untying the colt?” “The Lord needs it,” they said. Then they brought it to Jesus, and after throwing their clothes on the colt, they helped Jesus get on it. As he was going along, they were spreading their clothes on the road. Now he came near the path down the Mount of Olives, and the whole crowd of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the miracles they had seen: Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest heaven! Some of the Pharisees from the crowd told him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” He answered, “I tell you, if they were to keep silent, the stones would cry out.” As he approached and saw the city, he wept for it, saying, “If you knew this day what would bring peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes. For the days will come on you when your enemies will build a barricade around you, surround you, and hem you in on every side. They will crush you and your children among you to the ground, and they will not leave one stone on another in your midst, because you did not recognize the time when God visited you.”

Let’s pray. Go ahead and have a seat.

Welcome to Palm Sunday - the day we remember Jesus’ Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem starting the Passion week. It is a bitter sweet day - it’s in many ways a cutting day. For Christ did ride in to jerusalem and crowds gathered and even lifted shouts of praise! And that praise was deserved, for Jesus is God, the Messiah, the King! And yet - we know the week would end with the crowd shouting for crucifixion.

It’s also a day where we look forward to Christ’s second coming - as the culmination of all things. Palm Sunday is a big day - where we weep, where we praise, where we consider, and we long for Christ to come again.

I chose to read from Luke’s account of the Triumphal Entry this year. And What’s fascinating to me is that last section, Jesus’ disposition as he approached Jerusalem - let’s look at that again, this is Luke 19:41-44

Luke 19:41–44 CSB

As he approached and saw the city, he wept for it, saying, “If you knew this day what would bring peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes. For the days will come on you when your enemies will build a barricade around you, surround you, and hem you in on every side. They will crush you and your children among you to the ground, and they will not leave one stone on another in your midst, because you did not recognize the time when God visited you.”

This is truly a profound section of Scripture.

Jesus as he approaches the city - in the midst of the shouts of praise - where some are crying “Blessed is the KING” Right here it is - people are noticing - and what is Jesus’ response?

Tears - he weeps. He doesn’t weep for himself - though he knows pain is to come - no he weeps over Jerusalem, over the people of Jerusalem. He says If you knew this day what would bring you peace - but now it is hidden from your eyes.

For most of the people of Israel at this time - they had no concept for a messiah coming as a suffering servant. They expected a king with an army to free them from their occupation of Rome and to bring the glory and presence of God back into the Temple.

And God did come - but as a man - fulfilled the prophecies, proclaimed the gospel of the Kingdom of God - but most of the nation did not repent or respond.

Different factions operated different ways: the zealots schemed and stabbed and revolted against the Romans. the Pharisees believed that all the people needed to follow the law of moses and then some to prevent calamity and get blessing from God. The Sadducees denied the resurrection so they played game with the Romans and ascended high in the temple authority structures. Still others cooperated fully with the Romans becoming tax collectors. Others just lived in sin and depravity - and others just carried on.

Insert Jesus into the scene - and where the zealots wanted war - he said to bless your enemies. Where the pharisees said follow the letter of the law - Jesus said obey the heart of the law. The Sadducees denied the resurrection and Jesus said he WAS the resurrection.

He wept with those who wept, mourned with those who mourned, rejoiced with those who rejoiced - and proclaimed the kingdom of God had come - and invited people to repent, to change their lives to live in accordance with the reality of God’s presence and reign.

But most people didn’t notice or change at this point. They may honor him with their lips, but their hearts are far from him.

These people literally had God in Flesh in their midst - riding into town - and even though they sang praise along with the crowd they failed to discern that God was visiting them.

And these weren’t just any people - friends these were the jewish people, who had the Old Testament and were looking for the messiah - they knew the prophecies! But even though they had the scripture, they had the songs, they had the temple - THEY MISSED GOD. They missed his Kingdom.

And What Jesus seems to be saying here, in his tears - is they missed Christ - and he prophesys that the days are coming when Jerusalem will be destroyed BECAUSE they didn’t recognize the time of his visitation. This takes place in AD 70.

Darrell Bock writes in his commentary that Jesus is saying a serious oppurtunity has been missed. If the nation had seen it - they could have experienced blessing - instead something more dire lies ahead.

What’s on Jesus mind as he approaches Jerusalem ISN’T the pain that he’s going to experience. He weeps for the people! He loves these people. He cares deeply for them - but they didn’t recognize him.

One may ask - how is this possible? How can they have Jesus in the flesh - performing the miracles, preaching with authority, bringing healing and deliverance, and miss him?

It’s so fascinating friends - the kingdom of God is at hand - and yet it’s obscure to many. Even those who “know” what to look for. Grew up in a community that follows God and has the ten commandments on city halls. Where everyone seems to have John 3:16 memorized. They know their Sunday School Stories. But lives are unchanged. It just seems like like the Gospel doesn’t take root.

And so we live with a distant faith - going through the motions - and we can live at great risk of missing God. Not living in his kingdom - but next to his kingdom.

There are so many reasons for this - You see we all have expectations of What we want God to do and how we want Jesus to speak to us and save us.

I think of Matthew 11, and John the Baptist. Surely - if there was a man who knew that Jesus was the Messiah - it was John the Baptist. John was a relative of Jesus.

John goes out into the wilderness and he is a prophet in the wilderness, he preaches a message of repentance and preparation FOR the messiahs arrival. Crowds come to him to be baptized - Jesus calls John the greatest person born of a woman.

And John baptizes Jesus - knowing that he’s the messiah - I mean heaven opens, the Spirit descends, the Father Speaks.

But then Jesus began his ministry - John gets arrested. And this probably shook him up. Again - John, growing up in the jewish thought of the day, perhaps thought of the messiah as the coming King who would come and restore the israelite kingdom in glory. Free them from the romans. A new exodus. Instead he’s imprisoned. And Jesus is preaching about forgiveness.

So John has a very human moment in matthew 11, verse 2-3:

Matthew 11:2–3 CSB

Now when John heard in prison what the Christ was doing, he sent a message through his disciples and asked him, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?”

Johns on death row - and his expectations are shattered. He’s writing going - Okay Jesus - we thought your the messiah - but I’m dying here - are you going to rescue me? IS there someone else coming?

And Jesus responds verses 4-6:

Matthew 11:4–6 CSB

Jesus replied to them, “Go and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, those with leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor are told the good news, and blessed is the one who isn’t offended by me.”

What does Jesus say? He quotes the old testament - the messianic signs are being fulfilled in Christ. The gospel, the good news, is being proclaimed to the poor.

Christ was on the seen - The Messiah - but sometimes - like John - our expectations are off - so we fail to fully recognize and appreciate Jesus. Jesus turns to scripture to ground his expectations - and so should we.

We need to have good Biblical teaching and instruction. Kids Church is a good foundation - Sunday is great. Regular reading throughout the weeks is good - as questions - dig in.

What’s interesting, however - is a lot of people in our country have grown up in Church - in scripture - and yet they are shaped more by culture than faith. We bring our own expectations onto scripture, rather than Scripture onto our lives.

Scripture is so important, so foundational, and if we can be honest - very complicated and difficult. So be bold and ask questions when we get confused. Because John the Baptist likely had huge swathes of the Scripture memorized - and but his expectations were still more in line with the religious culture of the day.

That should be instructive to us. It’s possible to read scripture, know Scripture, memorize scripture, and miss what God is doing. That’s not saying we don’t study scripture - I’m not saying that - I’m saying we just need to be aware that we bring so much of our own mindset onto the text. More than we imagine, so we need to constantly check ourselves and our culture so we don’t miss what the Spirit is trying to communicate to us.

I think a lot of the Jews in Jesus day missed his arrival for they were expecting a king on a horse riding to war - rather than a king on a donkey inviting us to live at peace with God and even with our enemies. They didn’t want that - they didn’t accept it. They missed Christ and his gospel of peace and victory. Their hope was in a political savior rather than a cosmic redeemer. They wanted freedom from their physical enemies who oppressed them more then from the oppression and slavery they were under due to sin.

Jesus comes and preaches the message of the kingdom of God - repentance, enemy love, generosity, humility, and that was not their expectation, so they missed him. They counted him as just good teacher. Not their king.

So sometimes we miss the king and the kingdom because our expectations are tuned to something and someone else.

Another reason is we are too busy or too loud to hear the quiet voice of God. We define ourselves by what we produce by our work. We pride ourselves on our output. Our world is so so so loud. And there are so many “good” things to spend our time on - and all of them will compete to be more important and essential.

I hear from people often who are seeking God’s wisdom in something - and they will ask me for advice on how to hear God, or bemoan them not hearing God, looking from some burning bush, or waiting on some voice from heaven to make things crystal clear - and at the same time they rarely if ever actually slow down, and get away to be with God in silence to seek him.

I cant help but think of the famous story of Elijah in 1 Kings 19 - where Elijah is distraught after seeing the incredible encounter on Mt Carmel; he just saw literal fire from heaven come down - and yet now he’s afraid of the queen.

So many of us think we need the huge things to feel secure - but so many times the big things happen and we still are just as lost and confused.

He runs away - and God meets with him. You might now this, 1 Kings 19:11-13

1 Kings 19:11–13 CSB

Then he said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the Lord’s presence.” At that moment, the Lord passed by. A great and mighty wind was tearing at the mountains and was shattering cliffs before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire there was a voice, a soft whisper. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. Suddenly, a voice came to him and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

The soft whisper - the still quiet voice.

What if God is still speaking? What if he is still moving - what if he’s indeed doing greater things - we are just too busy to notice? What if we have the soundtrack of the world turned up too high to be able to hear the quiet but confident voice of Jesus?

So much of the American faith, which has been great in so many ways, but one of the blind spots has been the pace and the emphasis on production - doing things for God.

So many of our prayer times are filled with talking and no listening. So many of our times of reading scripture is just about accomplishing the reading plan rather than communing with God.

We focus on making sure we are saved for when we die - but we don’t know how to live in the joy of the Lord in the here and now.

Friends - there are many times in my life that I am like the crowd in Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. I can come and sing songs and shout for joy - go along with the crowd - without actually discerning the presence of God in his love and glory and grace and power in the here and now.

Sometimes our familiarity with things can grow indifference. We can have all the airs of the Christian life - without Christ’s life.

But here’s the thing - Christ came and offers life. Think of Romans 10:13

Romans 10:13 CSB

For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

And so we proclaim the victory of Christ to everyone. Especially ourselves.

Because the Kingdom is at hand. It’s available.

But do you want it?

Do you want Jesus? Do you want his life? Will you call him king?

Jesus has two parables he gives back to back in Matthew 13 on this.

Listen to this first one, Matthew 13:44

Matthew 13:44 CSB

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure, buried in a field, that a man found and reburied. Then in his joy he goes and sells everything he has and buys that field.

The treasure of life is there - the man finds it - THEN IN HIS JOY, In his knowing taht this is it - this ist he greatest treasure - goes and sells everything he has to buy that field.

The Gospel is THAT good - that this man considers everything else a loss to him in order to gain Christ.

He then tells the next one - 45-46

Matthew 13:45–46 CSB

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls. When he found one priceless pearl, he went and sold everything he had and bought it.

Similar to the last one - but this time the merchant is an active seeker - he’s looking for good pearls - and he finds one that is priceless - so he casts aside everything else cause he found MORE than he was looking for.

Let’s put both up on the screen now

Matthew 13:44–46 CSB

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure, buried in a field, that a man found and reburied. Then in his joy he goes and sells everything he has and buys that field. “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls. When he found one priceless pearl, he went and sold everything he had and bought it.

Notice - the first one, the man finds the treasure - wasn’t necessarily seeking it out - but discovers it and he wants it, so he goes out.

The second man is seeking the pearl - and finds the greatest one.

Both represent the GOspel of Jesus Christ. That you can come to have life, abundant, eternal life int he here and now and forever more. The question is do you want it?

And if so - how bad? Enough to change? THATS the repentance ask that JEsus preaches - with how we started our whole study on the kingdom of God Mark 1:14-15

Mark 1:14–15 CSB

After John was arrested, Jesus went to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”

What if, Just like the crowd in Jerusalem - Christ is in our midst. And what if it’s possible - just like them that he can bring us peace - blessing - joy - salvation - LIFE. Do our lives look like we believe that good news?

Or do we cheer on Sunday and Jeer on Friday?

Do you want Jesus? Do you want his life? Are you ready to change as a result of him?

Let’s ask our question:

So What?

Friends we believe and proclaim Jesus life, death, resurrection. As a fact - a reality. And we know that he came to save from sin, from the devil, from the grave. He came to set us free - it is for freedom we have been set free - amen!

John 10:10 CSB

I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance.

He didn’t come just to get us into heaven when we die - he came to give us heavenly life in the here and now. That in the hard, in the pain, in the suffering we can know the loving-kindness of God intimately as the Spirit lives in us.

That is the reality of the Kingdom of God in the lives of believers!

Do you want it?

The jews on Palm sunday had their expectations of life and the messiah. The Wanted the king on the horse - they wanted the shout from heaven - and so they missed Christ.

Often times we miss out on what God is up to and wants to do in our lives.

But still he invites us. His kindness leads us to repentance.

Slow down - give up on the business and listen.

One of the more helpful things I’ve done for my own personal growth in the faith is to not make scripture reading/study be the same thing as my quiet time.

Meaning this - studying scripture for me is an intellectual pursuit - and a good one. I read, often a lot - and I study and learn a ton about God - but If I in the morning when I’m desperate to hear from God read four chapters of Scripture so I don’t “fall behind” I could be setting myself up for failure in meeting with God.

Instead I have found so much more joy in reading less - and praying and listening and being quiet more.

Typically in my “quiet times” you’ll find me start with quiet - usually a short prayer - something like : “Hey God. Thank you for saving me. I need to know your love. Speak to me.” and I’ll be quiet. Then I’ll often times read a psalm, maybe a psalm and a chapter from a gospel or epistle. Then I’ll pray for my day. I do my best to pray for all my meetings I know I’m going to have. I ask God to invade my conscientiousness throughout the day. And I usually then am quiet again. Sometimes I’ll feel like God is leading me towards a thought or a truth or a scripture. Sometimes I just remind myself of the gospel - that In christ I am forgiven, loved, chosen and redeemed.

Don’t make your quiet time with the Lord about production - but adoration. Presence over performance.

Then I go about my day - and I practice saying “hey God” as I see things that remind me of his love.

We all need to study and get aquainted with scripture - and there are lots of ways for that - but we really need to practice BEING with God. We need to practice the presence of God.

I don’t want a christian life, and a work life, and a family life - I want Christ’s life in me.

I want the kingdom of God here on earth and in my life as it is in heaven.

Do you want it?

Are you willing to change your life to get it? That’s what repentance means.

Cause you see - for us - that parable would go different - It’s not that we in church need to go about searching for treasure and pearls - instead WE KNOW WHERE AND WHO IT IS!

Jesus Christ is God and Savior. He became sin who knew no sin so that we can become the righteousness of God.

In Christ you can be forgiven, redeemed, FREE

Do you know him? Have you asked him to save you? HAve you confessed your need for him? Do you want his life in you?

And do you feel his love? Do you know it in your body and your life? Do you want it?

I’m not saying that every moment of every day I feel good and happy and go lucky - no, it is a fallen world. And there are days that are hard. and there is illness and pain.

But in the midst of all the noise and pain and suffering - I can have faith and confidence that God is with me. And that has radically changed my life.

What would it look like if we chased after God? What if we were persistent in prayer? What if we were bold in our asks?

I wonder if we wouldn’t see a move of God in our lives and communities.

Because when the people of God seek the face of God and are filled with the Spirit of God - they become dynamic agents of God.

The invitation for you this sunday is this -

Slow down. Don’t miss Jesus. It’s possible to be in the community of faith and miss Jesus. It’s possible to sing the songs of the faith - and fail to know Christ and be known by him.

Slow down - and ask in prayer - God do you know me? do I know you?

Search the scritpures for the truth - and find someone who can help you know the truth.

Like if it’s true that there is a God - and he loves us - and he wants to save us - and give us his presence - and enable us to live in love from now till forever - isn’t that worth it? What is that worth to you?

As obscure and hidden as Christ may seem at times - we proclaim Christ has come, died, risen and lives right now. And he can save us each and every day.

He is so faithful.

So lean into him. Hide yourself in the rock of Ages.

Say no to things that choke the word of God form your life. Sin, yes, vices, yes. But also good things that aren’t the best things. Enjoyable things taht are actually distractions from God.

Say yes to scripture, joy, community, service, prayer, and love.

Let us live in, pursue, and proclaim the life of Christ to each other and the world until he comes again. Amen?

Cause Jesus is king. He is alive. And wants you to have abundant life. If you go tit - let someone know! And if you don’t - friend - it’s worth it. Ask for help - ask for prayer - seek him, and he says you will find.

Don’t get discouraged - get humble. Jesus is Good. Jesus is Alive. And he is our savior, sanctifyer, healer, and coming king.

Stand and Sing.