Luke's Gospel

Loop chapter 19 verse 28. After Jesus had said this, he went on ahead going up to Jerusalem. As he approached Beth Feige and Bethany at the Hill called the Mount of Olives, he sent 2 of his disciples saying to them, go to the village ahead of you and as you enter it, you will find a cult tied there, which no 1 has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, why are you untying it?

Say, the Lord needs it. Those who were sent ahead went and found it just as he had told them As they were untying the cult, its owners asked them, why are you untying the cult? They replied, the Lord needs it. They brought it to Jesus, threw their cloaks on the cult and put Jesus on it. As he went along, people spread their cloaks on the road.

When he came near the place where the road goes down the mount of olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen. Bless is the king who comes in the name of the lord, peace in heaven and glory in the highest. Some of the pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, teacher, rebuke your disciples. I tell you, he replied, If they keep quiet, the stones will cry out. As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said, if you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace.

But now it is hidden from your eyes. The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave 1 stone on another because you did not recognize the time of God's coming to you. When Jesus entered the temple courts, he began to drive out those who were selling.

It is written, he said to them, My house will be a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of robbers. Every day, he was teaching at the temple, But the chief priests, the teachers of the law, and the leaders among the people were trying to kill him. Yet they could not find a way to do it. Because all the people hung on his words. Thanks, Paul.

And as Paul said, my name's Phil. Great to see you all This evening. Welcome to my global audience as well on the live streaming. It's terrific to have everyone here. We're gonna it'd be helpful if you leave that passage open because we're going to spend our time looking at some detail in that passage.

But let me pray before we turn to it. Foligold, thank you for your word. We pray, lord that you will speak to us now by your spirit into our hearts into our minds, take your word, plant it in us, open it up to us, that we can not just learn from it, although we do want to learn from it. But that we might be gripped by it and changed by it in Jesus's name, amen. Now who amongst you can remember when our queen Queen Elizabeth was coronated, her coronation.

Who could remember that? Thhelma. Anne on the livestream. That should be about it. It was 19 53.

And that was the last time we had a coronation in this country. You see, a coronation is a very big deal, just that we haven't seen 1. It's a very big deal. Even in this age of of republicanism, really, which we're in across the world, so few countries have monarchs. But when you do have a combination, the crowd comes out.

It's often a public holiday. You get dignitaries flying in. World leaders from all over the world. You get gold and you silver and robes and carriages. It's all the norm.

They're all on display. The the military are in dress uniforms, and TV audience can be millions nowadays. It's a big deal. Well, in this passage here this evening, we see as Jesus enters Jerusalem, We see a coronation. We see him being hailed as king by popular support, really.

In verse 38, we see it says the crowds crying out, blessed is the king who comes in the name of the lord. But I don't know if you felt it as it was as Paul read it to us. It's not like the sort of coronation we would see today. When we see our next will you be a king, won't it? Crown here in this country?

Yes. There are thousands of people there. He's hailed as king. But didn't you even then? You can't help really when you read it and feel the shadow of the cross over it.

It must have been weighing on Jesus, mustn't it? When he came into Jerusalem? Here he is. He's being praised and he's being hailed as king, yet he knows that the crowns are not gonna be on his side for long. A week later, he'll be killed less than a week actually.

He'll hang on the cross. Betrayed by 1 of his own. Even the other disciples, and it says they're cheering here will soon deny him and desert him. So what must Jesus have been thinking? He rides into Jerusalem with crowds in front of him, following behind, cheering him, laying down their cloaks, says in John's gospel waving palm branches.

And yet in his heart, he knows that he has less than a week to live. But within a few days, the same crowd We'll turn against him, and we'll cry out crucify him crucify him. Now you know, don't you? What it's like when something sort of hanging over you in life? When something bad when something big in your life is going wrong and you can see it coming towards you, perhaps you're I don't know.

You've had a you're having a scan in hospital and you're waiting the results. It's hanging over you. Perhaps you've got a a really difficult meeting that you don't wanna have coming up Perhaps you you know, there's a friendship in your life that's broken. And you want to fix it, but you know it's gonna be painful. You know, these things hang over us.

Never mind, death. Jesus knows what's gonna happen. He knows what's gonna happen in only a few days' time. He isn't surprised when the crowd is gonna turn against him. He's not astonished by Judus's betrayal.

He isn't shocked when Peter disowns him 3 times. Jesus, the son of god, the king of the universe knows everything, sees everything, and as we'll see tonight, He plans everything. In this passage, there's a lot going on, and we're gonna see really 4 aspects of Jesus as king. 4 things that we need to take note of. And the first 1 is this.

Jesus is the king who fulfills prophecy. Jesus is the king who fulfills prophecy. See, up to this point in his life, Jesus has never allowed the kind of open public display that we see here. Remember, he's always been the Messiah. He's always been the king.

He's been performing miracles. He's has unparalleled wisdom. Arguably, you could say, every time he's spoken to a crowd, every time he's fed thousands of people, every time he's healed someone, he's put his deity on display by what he said, by what he did. And so anytime in the last 3 years of his life in this ministry, it would have been right, wouldn't it? For everyone to worship and exalt him?

But he didn't allow it until now. Why? Because now is the time. See, from early on, the religious leaders had hated him. He knew that any public display of adoration or worship by the people would bring escalated animosity from the teachers of the law.

And a premature death, probably, but now is the right time. Now is the time to inflame the situation. Now's the time to escalate matters because he has to be on the cross by Friday. Fridays the passover. Fridays when the passover lambs were slain, and Jesus is to be the 1 true sacrifice for sin.

So his timing is divine and his timing is perfect. And furthermore, Jerusalem has to be the place because that was where the sacrifices were made. So Jesus knows here that the timing is right to inflame the faracies. But he also knows that there are prophecies that have to be fulfilled as he enters Jerusalem. Verse 29.

As he approached Bephage and Bethany at the hill called the Mount of Olives. He sent 2 of his disciples saying to them, go to the village ahead of you. And as you enter it, you will find a cult tied there. Which no 1 has ever ridden. Untide and bring it here.

If anyone asks you why you untying it, say the law needs it. Now they're remarkable verses on there when you just read them like that. See, Jesus hasn't been over to the village earlier to prearrange to borrow this cult. He he hasn't texted the owner. He hasn't found, you know, cults for you on the internet.

He's not a member of the donkey club where you just pick up a cult that's been parked there. He, knows what no 1 else knows, that there's a cult in that village. Doesn't even have to go there. It's remarkable. And then read verse 32.

Those who were sent ahead went and found it just as he told them. As they were untying the cult, its owners asked them, Why are you untying the cult? They've replied, the lord needs it. Now, to my mind, that's extraordinary because if somebody's nicking your bike, And you say, why are you doing that? And they just said the lord needs it.

I think that's far fetched. But they just accept it because that's what he said was gonna happen. See, not only does he know the cult is there without seeing it, he can see the conversation. With the owner even though it hasn't happened yet. And and please understand it.

It's not that he anticipates that the owner is gonna rush out and say why are you touching the gold. He knows word for word, what's gonna happen. Now quite rightly, the commentators are made a lot of this. You know, this is a miracle. This is an all seeing, all knowing Jesus.

And then you add it to the fact that the The colt, which means the foal of a donkey, you know, has never been ridden. It hasn't been broken in. So you try and get on that and it would be quite an exciting ride. Not for Jesus. He gets on, and the animal is completely submissive.

So we see here Jesus is all seeing or knowing he has control over nature in the form of the donkey. But although that's amazing, it's not what this is really about. Because we've seen it before. All seeing, all knowing world. Do you remember the woman at the well when we looked at that?

You are right when you say you have no husband says Jesus. The fact is you've had 5 husbands and the man you now have is not your husband. Control over nature all about when he calmed the storm. He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters. The storm subsided and all was calm.

So what he does here is a new. It's not about the miracle itself. It's not about him showing us his power again, it's about prophecy. In Zechariah 9 verse 9, we read this. Rejoice greatly, daughter Zion.

Shout daughter Jerusalem, see your king comes to you righteous and victorious lowly and riding on a donkey on a colt, the foal of a donkey. That was the prophecy. And Jesus is fulfilling it here as he rides this cult into Jerusalem. But there's a second prophecy really that's fulfilled here and it's what the people shout. Verse 38, Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the lord.

See, that is straight from Psalm 118 verse 26. Where it says, blessed is here, you comes in the name of the lord. The significance of that, the significance of what the people are shouting here is that it's a messianic psalm. It is a it is a psalm of the people praising God for their deliverance, for their salvation, really. So when Jesus allows this public adoration at the beginning of this this passage, as he rides into the Jerusalem on this cult, he does it because it fulfills prophecy, And he does it because it sets in motion a chain of events that are gonna lead him to a horrific death.

Only a few days later. The king fulfills prophecy. The second thing we see is Jesus is the king who must be praised. So Jesus is riding into Jerusalem on his colt And you can see there he's being praised and he's being worshiped with the cloaks, with the palm branches. He's being hailed as king.

The disciples and thousands have come out to see him and praise him. And actually, when you read it, I think there's a feel of quite a massive event here. This is like a frenzy. See, the people have heard about all they know about lazarus having been raised from the dead. They've probably met people who Jesus has healed.

They've heard him speak. They've heard about his wisdom, and it's near Passover. They're waiting The nation is waiting. It's passover. They've been they've been waiting for 400 and something years.

For a political or a military leader to arise. Surely, they're thinking this could be him. This might be the 1. They love him. It's been out there healing and speaking.

But what you see here is, of course, Not everybody has that mindset. The religious leaders notice don't praise him. Why? Well, I guess firstly because there was no praise for them. That's what they usually wanted.

They wanted them the people to praise them, not to praise Jesus. But also, they were, I think, jealous. Of the people's love for Jesus. The people's joy. And isn't that a picture of our hearts?

So often. They didn't feel the happiness and the joy themselves, so they couldn't bear other people having it. Reminds me a bit of the the older brother in in the prodigal son. You know, he just can't join in, can he? In the happiness of his younger brother being back.

He's only really thinking about himself. He says to his father in Luke 15, You never gave me. You never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. You can't be happy about something else. Now how often do we feel like that?

How often do we feel like something's good happening to somebody else? And instead of being pleased for them, we're sort of almost jealous, almost envious, How often do you do you stand on the edge? Perhaps even in church, and others are praising god's name. And you don't feel it. And so you basically despise them for it.

You become a critic of what's happening around you or in home group. You know, you might be in home group. And there are people there and they're really into the discussion, you know, and they're contributing, and they're enjoying it. And you're not. And you're just sitting there.

And instead of thinking, wow, they've really got this passage or they're really into this discussion. You're just a cynic Spurgeon said this, actually, on this passage. If we have no music in our own hearts. Let us not wish to stop those who have. But that is what's happening here.

That is where the pharisees are. They hate Jesus more simply because the crowd love him. These leaders whose job it was to look for and identify the Messiah are so wrapped up in their own power grab, in their own wealth preservation that their hearts are hardened. They're not really looking. They're not open to Jesus being the Messiah.

They've closed their eyes to what's going in front of them. And so you see an envy there. But it's not just that that stirs them up. Because they're not seeing him as the Messiah. So they see this adoration, these references to Jesus, as as the king and quoting, you know, the messianic psalm as blasphemy.

Verse 39, some of the sat pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, teacher rebuke your disciples. They wanted the crowd silent because they think it's all, I don't know, unseemly. They're saying to Jesus, rebuke this crowd for ascribing to you, that which you are not due. Because you're not the Messiah. And as we've already said earlier this evening, Earlier in his ministry, he might have quiet in the crowd.

But this was his time. This was God's timing. And so we get this amazing verse, verse 40. I tell you, he replied, if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out. Jesus will be praised.

Jesus must be praised. The whole design of the universe is that Christ is praised. And if the people won't do it, he says the rocks will. If we refuse to praise Jesus Christ, that rocks will get the joy, the privilege of doing so. The frightening thing about that, here in this passage is that basically, after this scene, the crowd really do go quiet.

The next day are the people out, praising and shouting his name? No. What about the day after that or the day after that? The next time the people cry out for Jesus is chapter 23 verse 20. It says wanting to release Jesus, pilate appeared to them again but they kept shouting crucify and crucify.

So within a few days, they've gone from praising to demanding his death. And he knows this is gonna happen. Yet right now, at this point, he accepts the praise. And he says if they weren't praising me, the stones would be. So in 1 pretty outrageous statement, actually, verse 40, He confirms he's the Messiah.

He confirms he's worthy to receive adoration and praise. And then he goes from that to exercising his authority in pronouncing judgment. And that's our third point. Jesus is the king who weeps. Verse 41, as he approached Jerusalem, and saw the city, he wept over it and said, if you, even you, had only known on this day, what would bring you peace?

But now it's hidden from your eyes. The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls, they will not leave 1 stone on another because you did not recognize the time of God's coming to you. They're frightening verses. He's already pronounced, if you remember it, just a few weeks ago in our series, He's already pronounced a judgment on Jerusalem at the end of Luke chapter 13. Just turn back with me to Luke 13.

Go back a few pages. And we're looking at verse 34. Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, How often I've longed to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings and you were not willing. Look your house is left to you desolate. I tell you you will not see me again until you say blessed is he who comes in the name of the lord.

So even then, He knows they're gonna reject him. He knows here they're gonna reject him. When he says you won't see me again until They say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the lord. I don't think he's talking about now, 19. Chapter 19.

He's talking about you will see me again as your king when you turn and believe in me. So Jerusalem is gonna be under the judgment that he gives in 19 until they turn to Jesus as their Lord and Savior, and it hasn't happened. So it continues. He's saying in 41, look, because you've rejected the truth it will now be hidden from your eyes. Remember, it's 1 of the Faracy's jobs.

To look for the Messiah, because they harden their hearts, because they refuse to believe, then Jesus is to be hidden from their eyes, city will come under siege and be destroyed. That's what it say. And in AD 70, that came to pass. The Romans laid siege to the city. It's a historical event.

It was horrific the siege. The Jews were so weakened by the siege that although they had a protective wall, they really didn't have the strength to fight. The Roman army took out a section of the wall poured in and killed everybody, basically. Women and children included. That's what he's saying.

It's gonna happen and it does happen. Now why does that judgment happen? You see, couldn't you argue here? Look, Jerusalem is recognizing you. Okay.

The teachers of the law didn't. But Jerusalem poured out into the streets with their palm branches and their messianic psalm, they did recognize you. But Jesus knows it's superficial. Yes. There's a crowd.

But they don't really believe in him or rather they don't believe in the sort of Messiah, he is. They want the Messiah being short term change. And that isn't him. He pronounces judgment on Jerusalem here, and the judgment continues Jerusalem never turned back to Christ and Jesus fills it deeply. As it says here, he wept with sadness at the hardness heart of Jerusalem and what it will become.

Remember the scene. Everyone else is rejoicing. Everyone else is dancing and, you know, up. And Jesus is crying. It's an extraordinary thing.

It's very intense, very emotional. The Greek word here is much more than just tears. It's a sort of inward anguish sobbing, crying out. And it's not in the middle of the night when he can't sleep, and he's thinking about Jerusalem. When he's thinking about Israel, this is in the midst of a coronation, a parade, a celebration.

His sorrow can't be restrained by the occasion, like I guess most of us would be. Weeping that they reject their savior, weeping at their blindness. And the reality is as we think about that, Is that how we feel? When our friends and our neighbors, and our family, and our town constantly turn their back on Jesus. Do we feel that sort of anguish?

Do we feel that sort of depth of sorrow at them? Or or do we have a sort of lazy indifference really? So I think sometimes quite often, actually, I'm more like Jonah. I don't know if you are, but I'm more like Jonah, looking at the city of Nineveh, and hoping it would be destroyed and say, look, they deserve it. They deserve what they get.

Rather than like Jesus, looking at the city of Jerusalem and weeping. So let's pray that we have enough compassion for people around us who are lost that we might weep like Jesus does. Let's pray that our hearts are softened and moved by a judgment that will come on those who refuse to recognize that Jesus is king as the pharisees in this scene refused. Verse 41 is he approached Jerusalem and saw the city He wept over it and said, if you even knew had only known on this day, what would bring you peace? See what's he saying?

He's saying, look, you're the favored city. This you're the city that whose hardness of heart is causing me to weep. So Jesus didn't expect, I don't know, Egypt to follow him. He didn't expect Rome to recognize him. But he's saying even you Jerusalem, that you shouldn't know who I am either.

Don't you think as you sit here tonight, you might be thinking the same about some of us? About you as you sit here? Even you, and you don't know me. See, some people Some of us, I guess, we sit in Cornerstone or we sit at other churches for years. We're so near the kingdom.

And yet still we're not in it. You know, you come, you hang out with us, you may have been on the student weekend, perhaps you've joined us and came into membership. You even give money. You come to stuff. Yet you don't really know Jesus.

And Jesus weeps for you like he weeps for Jerusalem because of the opportunity that you 2 are rejecting. Jesus is the king who fulfills prophecy. Jesus is the king who must be praised. Jesus is the king who weeps And lastly, Jesus is the king who acts. See, at the end of this day of this coronation, There's been huge adoration from the crowd, the hatred of the pharisees.

At the end of the day, the light goes. Jerusalem is packed for the passover. It's crowded with tents everywhere. And we're told in Mark's Gospel, Jesus returns to Bethany. Overnight.

So when we get to verses 45 to 48 in Luke, it's the next day, now Monday. Only 4 days to go. These are the last days of his ministry. And he doesn't waste them. Remember, Jesus has just been effectively crowned by popular demand.

The expectation here from the crowd is massive. Israel is gathered in Jerusalem for the Passover Festival. The religious leaders are looking to kill him It says, but fear the people, tension is high. And Jesus has the modern well, the modern equivalent of what Jesus has is really what they call the first hundred days of the US president. If you if you read about this, whenever a US president is inaugurated, he has essentially a hundred days before they start judging whether he's any good.

He has a hundred days where Congress and the Senate will basically let him pass stuff. Then it slows down. Then you have to go for reelection. Jesus has 4 days. 4 days when the crowd is seemingly with him.

4 days when he can affect real change before he starts to be judged. Is his presidency? Is his king? Is this king gonna be any good? 4 days before he's gonna be arrested and flogged and killed.

So what does he start by doing? What would you do? Does he start by overthrowing the Roman Garrison? Does he start by killing pilot? Does he start by declaring a state of independence from Rome?

Does he start by reforming the tax system always high in my agenda? Does he focus on social structures? Doesn't do any of it. Verse 45, when Jesus entered the temple courts, he began to drive out those who were selling. It is written he said to the my house will be a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of robbers.

Just been crowned, and the next day he goes to the temple, he goes to the heart of the nation and clears out the corrupt market. The stall holders. The people making money off the people. And remember, it's like 1 verse here as if it's just a fact, he goes and clears it. You know, this is a massive.

It's in the court of the gentiles, it's a big area. At this time of year, they reckoned when you got to pass over 260000 lambs were slaughtered. The stench of death over Jerusalem at Passover was huge. The blood would run-in the streets off out of the temple. All of these stall holders are in there selling you stuff that you were gonna sacrifice.

And they wouldn't have just moved because Jesus said I'd like you to go now. Does it have an army with him? But he clears it. He clears it because he has authority. He clears it because the day before the crowds were out hailing him as king.

This is a person with authority. In John's gospel, chapter 2, we see that he starts his ministry by cleansing the temple. 3 years later, at the peak of his earthly power, and he first day of office, if you like, going back to the hundred days idea, he does it again. Doesn't attack the pagans. Doesn't attack you know, the idolatrous occupying Roman forces, doesn't do anything that people wanted him to do.

He attacks the temple. He attacks the heart of Judaism. Why? Because to Jesus The issue in Israel was not Rome occupation. The issue was Jewish religious corruption.

God wasn't concerned with people's relationship to Rome. He was concerned with people's relationship to him. He wasn't concerned with their politics or their social issues or their tax system. His whole ministry is focused on the spiritual, and that is true today. So if Jesus came now, I don't think he'd go to Washington.

I don't think he'd go to Beijing. I don't think he'd remove the North Korean bloke from power. I think he'd go to the churches, and he'd attack the heretics, and the exploiters, and the fakes. That's the equivalent of what he's doing here. He's gone to the soul of the nation, the temple because they've turned it into a place of business and corruption.

When Solomon builds the temple and and it's consecrated in 1 king's chapter 8, he prays to God as it's happened. There's a really interesting prayer, actually. I'm just gonna read you a little bit of it. Solomon says this, May is talking to God. May your eyes be opened towards this temple night and day?

This place of which you said My name shall be there. So that you will hear the prayer your servant prays towards this place. Here the supplication of your servant and of your people sorry, and of your people, Israel, when they pray towards this place. Here from heaven your dwelling place. And when you hear, forgive See, Solomon was asking God to hear Israel when they turned to him in prayer not just through the priests, actually, but even when they simply turned towards the temple, when in other words they looked to god.

But did you notice in that little bit I read what Solomon was praying God would do when they do turn to him? Forgive. The temple was there. The temple was where the nation should come to be repentant and to be forgiven. And instead, these guys are buying and selling and making money and it's corrupt.

And so Jesus acts. You see, it's this hypocrisy, this corruption amongst the Pharaces. He can't stand it. And he clears it. Even though if you think about it, he's already said it's a waste of time.

They're going to come back. I'm going to be dead. It's not gonna change. Jerusalem is gonna get smashed. He still clears it.

So we've seen a king who fulfills prophecy. We've seen a king, who must be praised, we've seen a king who weeps. We must we've seen a king who acts, who's not quite the end of his ministry. Look at verse 47. Every day, he was teaching at the temple, but the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the leaders among the people were trying to kill him.

Yet, they could not find any way to do it because all the people hung on his words. So he's got these last few days, the hundred days compacted into 3 or 4. He clears the temple. What's he do then? Does it go back to the tax system and stuff?

No. Spends the next few days teaching at the temple. But teaching what If I asked you, what do you think Jesus was teaching now? What would you say? Because he's now declared who he is.

He is the Messiah. He's come in. He's fulfilled the prophecy. So what is he teaching? He knows Jerusalem isn't gonna turn.

So what is he teaching? He knows the crowd are shortly gonna shout crucify him crucify him. So what is he teaching? See, I think it comes back to Jesus weeping in verse 41. God doesn't want anyone to perish.

He doesn't want anyone to reject the sun. So for those last couple of days, he teaches and it tells you actually in the first verse of the next chapter that we'll look at next time. Chapter 21 day as Jesus was teaching the people in the temple courts and proclaiming the good news. So he's preaching the gospel. He's preaching salvation Even then that a few might turn.

A few might repent. So he weeps over Jerusalem. He weeps over you if you haven't come to know him, but there's still hope. Because he's still teaching. He's still speaking today through his word.

He's still teaching then. In the same little scene in Matthew's Gospel, it says this in chapter 21, the blind and the lame came to him at the temple and he healed them. So imagine the scene here. Jerusalem is packed. It is a melee of people.

A king comes fulfills prophecy, praised by thousands, then he takes up position in the temple court, and he teaches, and he heals. Can you imagine how many people would come? Bringing the sick and the lame and the deaf and the blind and he heals everyone. For these last few days, it is full on mission. See, this whole passage is Jesus in the limelight like never before, and all because his time has come.

He desired from the minute he set off to Jerusalem the day before, on that Sunday, He desired to draw the attention of the whole Jewish nation to himself. The lamb of God was going to be slain. It was fitting that the whole of Jerusalem would be buzzing about him, that the great work of redemption was not only gonna be done by him, but it wasn't gonna be done in a corner. As the people pour into the temple to see him to hear him, to see healings, to be healed. He triggers the reaction, of course, he always knew he was gonna get.

Because it's part of the great plan of salvation. Verse 47, the chief priests, the teachers of the law, and the leaders among the people, were trying to kill him. And 4 days later they succeed. And on that cross, Jesus takes our sin on himself He bears our punishment that we deserve. And if we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, then he restores us into relationship with God.

So we can look forward to a future in heaven. And he doesn't need to weep for us because we're his. Jesus the king who fulfill scripture, the king who must be praised, and he's worthy of that praise. Jesus the king who weeps. At the lost, for the lost.

And Jesus, the king who acts acts by bringing us to himself. And you see, 1 day, he's gonna return again and we'll really see a carnation. And this is a great picture. But we'll see a celebration and a coronation that far exceeds what Jerusalem witnessed. In Luke 19.

We're gonna see Jesus then as King of the Universe, King of heaven and Earth in all of his power and his majesty. And what a sight that's gonna be? Let's pray. Father, thank you for this terrific picture. This amazing, planned entrance.

That Jesus knows what he's doing as he inflames the situation as he inflames the fallacies. Lord help us to Not be slow in our hearts and our minds to praise Jesus. Well, we thank you that we have the privilege and the joy of being able to do that. That is not left to the stones that we can praise him. Lord help us to love you, help us to think about these things, these characteristics of of you as king that we see in this passage.

Lord, we thank you that many of us have come to know you, that you don't weep for us because you've brought us to yourself. And and father, we thank you for that work in our lives. Help us to live it, help us to have a compassion for those that don't know you, not just an indifference. Not an attitude like we might have to, like Jonah had to Ninevver. But an attitude like you had law to Jerusalem.

Lord, as these crowds gathered at the end as you healed and you taught, It is clear to us that you are your priority is our relationship with you, our relationship with God, the father. Help us lord in this world, not to get too bogged down in what's going on, whether it's politics, whether it's this virus, whether it's work, whether it's, you know, whatever it is that's going on in our lives, that would help us to focus on getting our relationship with you right. We thank you for this clear vivid picture this evening. Of your entrance, of the people praising, and yet we know those people disappeared, those people turned on you. Help us lord not to be like that.

Help us to be consistent in our love for you. That we might be a people that belong to you and might spread your word through our friends and our neighbors and this town that more people might turn back to you and be saved. In Jesus' name, our men.