Sermon Tone Analysis

In May 1981 I remember being miserably hot as I sat in a KLM 747 at Manila’s International Airport.

Because Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos and his wife were giving a state welcome for the visiting Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, our jet, having just arrived, was made to sit for almost an hour with the air conditioning off!

Since I could do nothing but watch, I took careful note of what I saw.

Alongside the president and his wife stood a platoon of navy-clad honor guards wearing shining gold pith helmets.

Next to them was another platoon dressed in forest green and white gloves and hats.

Then came a crimson and gold uniformed band.

Finally came a group resplendent in white naval uniforms.

Add to the scene swaying Philippine dancers in chartreuse and purple, a baby elephant clad in scarlet, a long red carpet, a Philippine jet bearing the epigram “Hurrah for Hollywood,” a twenty-one-gun salute, several gleaming black limousines, a temperature of 100 degrees, and you have the picture.

As I sat perspiring and gazing through the mirage-like heat waves rising from the runway, I thought to myself, “This is the best the world has to offer in honor and material pomp, but it is so transitory.”

And it was!

There were a few words, some ringing volleys, and everyone was gone, except for those rolling up the red carpet and sweeping the blazing asphalt.

In subsequent years, similar thoughts came again to me as I read of the Marcoses’ incredibly obsessive materialism: how Mrs. Marcos owned some 3,000 pairs of shoes and hundreds upon hundreds of designer dresses.

On one occasion she spent one million dollars in one day.

All this to festoon her aging body which is, as the Scriptures say, “wasting away” (2 Corinthians 4:16).

Of course, now the reign, the palace, the shopping sprees are all gone!

The Marcoses tried their very best to make it last forever.

But they could not!

So it is with the rulers of the earth.

But it was not so with the King of Kings.

He was a new kind of King.

He operated from a different kind of principle.

As we examine his example, we will escape the transitoriness which haunts our human pursuits.

The Borrowed Donkey

Mark 11:

() From these verses, What can we learn about Jesus?

() From these verses, In What ways can we be set free and find peace of mind through understanding the foreknowledge & control of Jesus?

Zechariah

() & () From these passages, What can we learn about Jesus?

The Humble King

Mark 11:

Psalm 118:

() What are the different ways that people (we) can respond to the coming of the King into His kingdom reign?

The Mount of Olives

Zechariah 14:4-5

) How can people be ready for that climactic day when Jesus Christ comes a second time?

The Jerusalem Temple

Mark 11:

Mark 11:

(-17) What do these verses tell us about God’s Purpose for a place of Worship?

() How can we better achieve God’s Purpose as we gather together?