Let me tell you a really embarrassing story. When I was about thirteen years old, I started going through some, uh-hem, changes. One of these changes was recognizing that when I would workout, I would produce a large amount of sweet. This sweet would then be transferred to my clothes, soaking them. This was a horrific development, because it was at this same time, that I wanted to be more aquatinted with the females around me.
This came to a head one winter night when I attended one of my many baseball practices. This particular practice was inside a large commercial building, where they focused on pitching, fielding, and hitting, which I was there for pitching lessons. Now, it was cold, both outside and inside the building, so I had a large jacket on. When it came to my turn, as I got up, a cute girl walked into the area, and sat down to wait for her lesson, which happened to follow mine. Instantly, my dread of sweeting in front of this girl came over me like a tsunami, and I decided that for my lesson I would not take off my jacket.
My coach wasn’t happy, and after a little indulging of my stubbornness, he stopped the lesson and told me that unless I took off the jacket, he would not teach me. I was adamant in my stance, and so I left. Now, I cannot remember which parent was with me at the time, but I do remember that they laid into me when we got into the car. I returned to my coach with tears in my eyes, apologizing for my behavior. In the end, I made a bigger fool of myself in front of that girl, than I ever would have by taking off the jacket in the first place. And you might ask, what about that girl? Well, I never met her before that lesson, and I never saw her afterwards.
But it’s this idea that there are things that we hold onto, even at our detriment, that brings us to where we’re at today. Where we’re going to return to the Gospel of Luke in Chapter 19, and picking it back up in verse 35. And as we open up to Luke 19:35, let’s bring back to our minds, where we’re at in this series.
In our first week we looked at two interactions, with four groups. The disciples were running interference against some parents that sought blessings for children, who they saw as not being worth Jesus’ time, all the while allowing other more prominent people like the rich young ruler to come unhindered to him. Jesus ends up rebuking the disciples for this practice, embracing the children, while the rich young ruler walked away from following. We walked away from that week with the understanding that, God is calling us to seek his way humbly, that others may be blessed as we are.
In our second week, we saw two more interactions, this time with two miracles as a result. The first miracle was a blind beggar receiving his sight back. The second miracle was a hated tax collector receiving salvation. But within these two interactions we saw a crowd rejoice at the first miracle and grumble at the second. It was here that we understood that we need to not allow our personal biases to keep us from rejoicing at the work of God.
With these two weeks now fresh in our minds, let’s turn our focus to Luke 19:35. And it’s here today, that we’re going to look at three sequential events that will help us tie together everything we’ve talked about so far, into what God desires from us now.
This first event, is what is called the Triumphal Entry. We celebrate this event as Palm Sunday, which is today. It’s the event where Jesus comes into Jerusalem fulfilling the words of the prophet Zechariah in the 9th chapter and 9th verse of his writing. Let’s read this triumphal entry passage, starting in verse 35.
35 And they brought it (the donkey) to Jesus, and throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. 36 And as he rode along, they spread their cloaks on the road. 37 As he was drawing near—already on the way down the Mount of Olives—the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, 38 saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” 39 And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” 40 He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.”
Do you notice the energy of the people? The sense of anticipation that is moving within the crowd? To the people, this wasn’t just an ordinary entrance into Jerusalem, this was the beginning of a new kingdom. A new, more abundant life. To the people, Jesus was there to liberate them from the oppression of the Romans. They thought Jesus was there to establish the Israelite kingdom forever. A beacon to all other nations.
The Pharisees recognize the significance of what was being proclaimed about Jesus. They recognize that the people were calling for the overthrow of the Romans. They saw this as a call to take up arms against the government. And they sought Jesus to distance himself from this belief. But Jesus is King and and worthy of this praise, and so he rebukes the Pharisees and alludes to the creation praising its God.
But as the crowd tops a hill and Jerusalem comes into full view, a drastic switch intone occurs. Let’s continue reading in verse 41.
41 And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, 42 saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. 43 For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side 44 and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”
The tone of these two sequential moments in this procession towards Jerusalem are as night and day. The first is exuberant, with people cheering for the coming King and his kingdom. But then, as if someone flipped a light switch, Jesus’ words and actions brings us to a stoic, almost morose feeling.
The mindset of the crowd and the mindset of Jesus seem to be in different places. The crowd desires Jesus to be King, but they and the people of Jerusalem do not know what that means, and Jesus weeps over what they are about to miss.
I find it interesting that we’re not told here that Jesus weeps over the fact that he will be crucified, but rather he weeps over the people missing the point. In their enthusiasm of Jesus being King, they miss what that really entails. This Jewish crowd wants a kingdom on earth, that reigns over all other people, but Jesus is seeking a kingdom not just of the Jews, but of the Gentiles too.
This is why he weeps, many people miss the point, and because they do, and will eventual reject the King that he actually is, they will miss out on the salvation that is in store.
This is what happened in the situations with the blind beggar and the tax collector. The crowd rejoiced at the physical miracle of the blind receiving sight, but grumbled at the spiritual salvation of another. Here the people rejoice at the physical kingdom of God, but are about to miss the spiritual kingdom that must happen first.
This brings us to our third sequential event. Let’s drop down to verse 45, where Jesus enters Jerusalem and makes his way to the temple.
45 And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold, 46 saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a den of robbers.”
Here’s where all this comes together. In the fist two events, we see the mindset of the people vs Jesus’. Here we see the physical reality of what is to happen in the lives of the people who make Jesus King. This is the result of what it means to have Jesus be the physical King that the people wanted. It is a cleansing of the sins in our lives that have led to a spiritual decay. Jesus wants to drive out all things that hinder us in our relationship with God.
But the mindset of the people is not on being spiritually right with God. They weren’t interested in fixing the spiritual corruption, that had made it’s way into the temple. No, they were more interested in being greater than the people who were oppressing them. They, like the Hebrews before them, were not interested in following God with all their heart, mind, soul, and strength, but rather only when it gave them victory over their enemies in the here and now.
But throughout the nation of Israel’s history, God had constantly called them back to a spiritual cleansing, and only when they took that spiritual renewal seriously did God restore them physically. We can see this in a situation in the book of Joshua, where God allowed the Israelite defeat because of sin that was in their midst. Only when that sin was dealt with, did he give them physical victory (see Josh. 7:1-8:35).
But what we’re seeing right here, is that the people were not interested in a spiritual cleansing, just a physical victory. And they have become so entrenched in this mindset, that just a few days later, they were swayed to call for Jesus’ crucifixion.
This is because they had this mindset that it’s okay to hold onto certain things, even when those things are rejected by God. See the people thought they could hold onto their sacrificial system which seemed to allow a way to feel good about their sin. They thought they could hold onto their hate for other nations, they thought they could hold to their desire to be greater than others, and they thought that all they had to do was go through a physical ceremony to get by with God. But the reality is they couldn’t. They must reject all of their sin and embrace a spiritual renewal by Jesus. But because they couldn’t, Jesus had to go to the cross. He had to sacrifice himself for their sins, that they would have another opportunity to be saved by their God.
And this is true for us today. Whether we say we follow Jesus or not, we tend to think that we can hold onto to things that God has rejected, and think it’s okay. We think we can hold onto to hate for a person that has wronged us, we think we can hold onto un-forgiveness, or gossip, or our will, or our desires, or a host of other things that God calls us to give up.
But we are not called to hold onto anything, except those things of God.
This is why at the end of his first letter to the Thesselonica Church, Paul writes, “16 Rejoice always, 17 pray continually, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.19 Do not quench the Spirit. 20 Do not treat prophecies with contempt 21 but test them all; hold on to what is good, 22 reject every kind of evil. 23 May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it. (1 Thess. 5:16-24)”
This is what God is calling us to, a time of spiritual cleansing. A time of asking the question, “Do I have the mindset of Jesus to receive a spiritual renewal, or am I looking for what just benefits me physically right now?” Look at the world. We’re looking for world leaders to bring peace, were looking for economic stabilization, our eyes are on physical restoration, but what do we need first? We need a spiritual renewal. We need a great awaking to come back to God. We are moving greater and greater distances from him, and sin as become accepted as the norm, and even celebrated in our world, we need to be made right before the God who calls us away from sin and into new life. Today, as far as it concerns each of us individually, we need to repent of what sins we hold onto and the elevation of the physical over the spiritual. Because without a spiritual renewal, the physical will always be in bondage to sin. Only when we seek Jesus to rectify our spiritual lives, will the physical be renewed.
And so my challenge for you is this: In your bulletin there is a piece of paper, with two sides on it, The spiritual and the physical. During this next song, write down those things that are physical that you want God to fix in this world. War, economics, political landscape, abuse, crime. Whatever you see as those things that Jesus needs to fix in our world. Then on the spiritual side, write down the sins that you know you are struggling with. Are you struggling with hatred towards another, gossip, lying, slandering, quarreling, sexual misconduct? What is it that needs to be brought to the feet of Jesus?
If you have not accepted Jesus as your Savior, then you need to repent of sin and accept him. That is the first step in your spiritual renewal. Without turning towards Jesus, confessing your sins, turning away from you sins, and accepting Jesus’ forgiving work of those sins, we cannot hope to even start to see a spiritual renewal in our lives.
If you are believer, that sin has no power in your life, because it was broken by Jesus on the cross. But until Jesus gives you victory over it completely, we need to keep bringing those things that we struggle with, to him that he might deal with them in our lives.
Once you have written both sides, I want to challenge you to say the prayer at the bottom of the page: “Lord cleanse this temple of all things that hinder your work in my life, so that your kingdom will shine through me to this world. That the spiritual will be dealt with, so that the physical may be impacted.”
Let us be who we were saved to be, a kingdom of priests in this present age, who minster to our Lord and the people around us, until the day when he renews all things, both spiritual and physical, at his return. Amen
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