Even the Rocks Cry Out

Introduction

Last time, we saw that God can speak through silence. In stark contrast, if the stones cried out, would that get your attention to listen to what God is trying to say?

Thank you…turn to Luke 19.

We’re looking at some of the “Yoo-hoo” moments in the Bible where God was getting peoples’ attention.

We are looking at a passage that happened one week before Jesus’ death and resurrection—called the triumphal entry or Palm Sunday. In fact, we’re going to match this week’s services on Friday and next Sunday with the events that happened on them, too.

Jesus is nearing the end of His 3 1/2-year ministry of calling and training the twelve.

Chapter 19, Jesus is reminding us of His mission on earth, which is to seek and to save the lost. He had taken the disciples to the northern Israel to teach them some final truths, and is returning to prepare for the Passover.

Luke 19:10 KJV 1900

For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.

As Jewish people came to Jerusalem, and especially as they celebrated Passover, they would sing, say, and whisper the Hallel Psalms. Often repeated, they were very familiar.

Remember Psalm 118. It’s the last of the Hallel Psalms, and it is prophetic.

Psalm 118:26 KJV 1900

Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord: We have blessed you out of the house of the Lord.

See this being fulfilled in Luke 19:36-40.

If the rocks cried out, would they get your attention? Jesus says that if the worshipping were to stop, then the rocks would cry out. Well, the worshipping stopped, and rocks are still crying out. will we learn to worship the Lord?

Proposition: Worship Christ as Savior and King!

The issue for Jesus for the last 3 1/2 years of His ministry has been a matter of worship. Don’t hold back your worship of the Lord. (Pray)

Have you ever been to a church service that seemed so dead that you wished the rocks would cry out?

ILL: You could say if the people were silent, then the we would be reading about the first “rock concert.” But this was a concert full of holy harmonies and Scriptural truth.

THEME: Worship

Principle: Whatever is not done or built for the glory of the Lord will be destroyed.

God has shared His plan with man. God is on a rescue mission to save us from our sin, but He does not force us to return to Him. God did not force us to sin, either, but in His love He gives us a choice in the matter. For God, He chose to love us, no matter our response, but our choice has often temporal but always eternal consequences.

1. The Story

The coming

He came back into Jerusalem by way of Jericho, where He healed the blind men and then saved the heart of the short tax collector named Zacchaeus.

As Jesus traveled back to Jerusalem, crowds gathered. Many of the people, including the disciples, thought God’s kingdom was beginning, and the people sought to make Jesus the king.

As a believer, we should have a desire to be around the things of God and Him! There’s a magnetism when love is strong!

The colt. v. 19-35

There’s a message in the colt to see quickly.

Zechariah 9:9 KJV 1900

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: Behold, thy King cometh unto thee: He is just, and having salvation; Lowly, and riding upon an ass, And upon a colt the foal of an ass.

First, it had to be redeemed. The Law required a lamb to die in place of the firstling.

Exodus 13:13 KJV 1900

And every firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb; and if thou wilt not redeem it, then thou shalt break his neck: and all the firstborn of man among thy children shalt thou redeem.

Second, it had to be let go. v. 33-34 God had need of it. It is when we follow God that we have real freedom.

Third, it had to be ruled. God needed it to be under His control, not to be a wild stallion. It’s job was to lift and carry Christ.

This may sound crude, but it’s interesting when an ass understands worship better than most Christians.

The crowning. v. 36-38

Jesus was the right King.

Jesus is the righteous King.

Jesus is the resolute King. He was not going to to let earthly “setbacks” keep His redemptive plan from happening.

The confrontation. v. 39-40

The cry. v. 41-44

The charge. v. 45-47; 20:17-19

The temple was supposed to be a place of prayer—a place of connecting with God. His presence was supposed to be there! It was supposed to be a place of joyful worship!

The priests, especially the former high priest, who was related to the current high priest making hand over fist. There was a 25% markup for temple lambs or for converting foreign money into temple currency to pay your temple tax!

Jesus displayed His power in casting the money changers out!

Jesus also built on the analogy of the stones He spoke of during the Triumphal Entry.

2. The Stones of Witness

The rocks of the Bible are reminders and testaments to certain events and prophecies.

Several times, God asked His people to stack rocks to make a pillar or an altar as a memorial or for sacrifice—not just for them but especially for future generations.

Stones were also used in the construction of prominent structures, such as the temple.

First, the temple stones. In AD 70, Rome topped the stones, just like Jesus said would happen. They still testify of Israel’s rejection of the King.

Second, the Chief Corner Stone. Following Palm Sunday, the Jewish people refused Jesus. And Jesus called them out in Luke 20:17-20 by quoting from the Hallel Psalm...

If you notice, Jesus was rejected and crucified, but in His resurrection, He became the Cornerstone! His resurrection proved He is alive and is God!

Jesus is the foundation upon which the church is built.

Matthew 16:18 KJV 1900

And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

Third, the Church Stones. 1 Peter 2:3-8 alludes to Psalm 118:22 and as it refers to Christ, it calls us “lively stones” that make up the church. The existence of the church is a continual reminder that Israel rejected Christ. We are, in essence, a witness to Israel’s end of worship, but we must carry on His worship!

3. Worship Lessons

1. Worship is not a choice, but who you worship is.

The question is not IF you worship, but who or what. You are created as a worshipping being. It’s your default.

Later that week, do you remember the one thing they got a false witness to attest to, so they could send Jesus off to be crucified?

Matthew 26:61—Jesus said He would destroy the temple, and in three days He would build it again. He had spoken of the stones being overturned.

Who or what do you worship?

By the way, “if it looks like a duck and walks like a duck, it’s a duck.” Jesus came in fulfilment to prophecy riding on a donkey (Zechariah 9:9). He had proven Himself as the Messiah for 3 1/2 years and through His life, fulfilling a statistical probability that boggles the mind.

The people had time to examine the proofs of Jesus’ claim to be God, and this day and through the week they faced a pivotal choice.

Would they worship Christ?

When everyone was lauding the accolades of Jesus by laying down their coats before Him, waving palm branches, and yelling, “Blessed is He Who comes in the name of the Lord,” the Pharisees asked Jesus to tell the people to stop.

2. Your worship waxes and wanes.

How do you worship? Like the cycles of the moon. Like the Laodicean church, when you’re hot you’re hot, and when you’re not, you’re not!

Many people praised God the day of Jesus’ triumphal entry because of the joy and excitement—the hope that the Messiah had come!

Jesus showed the Pharisees that the jubilant worship that day was going to end. It was a frenzy of excitement that did not last.

Friends, if we are to get anything right, it must be our worship! Start it, and don’t let it stop! And if it does get broken, let God fix it!

So many of us worship when things are good or when we’re in a crisis, but on average days, we’re good to worship other things. (Our stuff, our schedules, our fun…)

Folks, if worshipping God was the priority of America, would she be a different land? OK, so if worship is OUR priority, why are we not different?

Is Sunday the best day of your week—even on Saturday evening when you know you need to get up the next day? Does your schedule—including your children’s events—revolve around worship, or do you show what you and your kids worship by asking God to bless your worship shortcomings?

In the few short verses of the story, the worship changed tones from awesome to awful.

Jesus offended the people of Jerusalem that day because they wanted a political Messiah more than they wanted a personal Messiah.

Let me prove to you that we often think the same way.

How many of you look at our nation and think, “This place is a mess!”

Then we think, “If Jesus came right now, He would march into Washington, D.C. and set things in order.”

How many of you wish Jesus would come and do that? (Hands) That is what the Jews hoped for, too.

Instead, the people watched Jesus come into Jerusalem, but instead of marching in with holy soldiers to the Roman garrison housed there, He prophesied the destruction of the temple, and He railed on the ones taking advantage of the temple worship to fill their pockets with money.

(You may not like this…) The only hope for the world is Jesus, not the United States of America.

We ought to love our country. God has blessed it! And God would bless it again, but on one condition, and that is if we get our worship right. But worship does not start in the law house, the school house, or the warehouse. Worship starts in the church house—and before then, in the Christian’s heart!

1 Peter 4:17 KJV 1900

For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?

Jesus came to Jerusalem because Jesus was judging the people in the house of God.

This was the second time Jesus did so—the first time was in the first part of His ministry.

How have you displayed your worship to God? He is the audience.

3. There’s a Conclusion to Your Worship

What is the end of what you worship?

A modern expression says that we want to be “on the right side of history.” Remember, history is not just a timeline full of random and chance events like an evolutionary chain built from probabilities and chemicals. History is His-Story.

Remember, Jesus said the rocks would cry out if the people were silent.

Jesus was making a prophecy.

The people did become silent, and later that week they same people in Jerusalem who wanted Jesus now rejected Jesus. Those who said, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord” were now screaming, “Give us Barabbas the criminal. Crucify, crucify Jesus. We want nothing to do with Him!”

That week, the people who worshipped stopped. The Jews have not worshipped Jesus since that day, and the rocks would soon cry out.

Forty years later, the Roman army came and slaughtered the Jews in Jerusalem and destroyed the temple. Jesus prophesied the stones would be overturned. Josephus says the Romans turned over the stones to recover the gold and precious metals that had melted during the fire.

The stones of the temple, the risen Christ, the Chief Cornerstone, and the church stones are still crying out today in unison that the worshippers’ lips fell silent.

The choice of who or what we worship is going to produce an eternal conclusion for our souls.

Conclusion:

The passage we see is not just for Israel. Will you worship Christ as your King and Savior?

For those who hold their worship and will not claim Christ as their Savior, knowing He is God and King, the testimony of Scripture preaches a cataclysmic, eternal conclusion for your soul.

When was your day of opportunity to respond and turn to Christ? When did you hear the Gospel, and how did you respond?

Have you replied to God’s “Yoo-hoo” moment to receive the salvation of God and to worship Christ as your own?

Those of you now gathered and watching who claim your souls have been saved and redeemed—you have more reason to worship than all the lost world combined! You are an heir of God’s family! Your sins are forgiven! You needn’t worry a day of life knowing your eternity is as settled as God’s Word in Heaven!

Nevertheless, is your body and temple a vessel of worship and praise? How sad it is when the music of the world fills our lips and hearts more than the songs of Zion!

Christian, are you worshipping God just because others are? Do you worship God alone or only in public?

Does your life match Who you worship? Are you one thing in public, like the Pharisees, and your private life is a mess?

Do your thoughts, feelings, and actions echo the praise of God? If you are redeemed, proclaim it!

Psalm 107:2a KJV 1900

Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, Whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy;

ILL: Redeemed—How I Love to Proclaim It (Fanny Crosby)

“Redeemed—how I love to proclaim it! Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb; Redeemed through His infinite mercy, His child, and forever, I am.

I think of my blessed Redeemer, I think of Him all the day long; I sing, for I cannot be silent; His love is the theme of my song.

Redeemed, redeemed, Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb; Redeemed, redeemed, His child, and forever, I am.”

Let us come and fall before our loving Lord and Savior and worship Him!