Forgiven and Forgiving

Luke chapter 19, verse 28. A special thanks to

Luke 19:28

Ms. Angela and Mr. Ernest for these beautiful

flowers that we have in here and out front. Palms.

Well, I'm sorry. Thanks for the correction. Thank

you for the palms. It is, of course, Palm Sunday.

You may not have known that. You may not even

know what Palm Sunday is, but that's okay. We're

going to talk a little bit about that today.

I'm getting close to Easter. It's a time that

we just set aside just to praise the Lord, just

to remember that we have hope, that we have a

reason to rejoice today, that Jesus Christ came,

that he was crucified, that he was buried, and

most importantly, he was resurrected. And so

because of that, our sins are forgiven, and we

have a reason to have some hope today. So praise

the Lord for that, and that's what we come and

celebrate every week, but we certainly want to

be reminded of that. around the time of Easter.

Luke chapter 19, verse 28, Jesus had been ministering

Luke 19:28

for probably a little over three years. He spent

time with his earthly ministry traveling from

place to place. He had been healing people and

he had been teaching people. He had been trying

to point people to really what God desired the

people to do. What God really wanted was people's

hearts to be right. It wasn't about outward actions.

It wasn't about going through motions. Jesus

really taught what really matters is what's in

your heart. It doesn't matter what goes on on

the outside if it's not coming from a good place,

if your motives are bad. And Jesus had received

a lot of folks that had welcomed him in and were

grateful to see him, but there were always folks

that really were. coming against Jesus, that

weren't so happy to see him, that doubted him,

that were his opposition, that were trying to

stop what he was trying to do. And this was a

constant struggle throughout Jesus' ministry.

And throughout his ministry, Jesus had kind of

avoided, you know, these situations where they

were trying to corner him and they were already

trying to kill him. I mean, they wanted to get

rid of him from the get -go, really. And Jesus

had always kind of made his way out of these

situations. Jesus had told people that he had

healed or done great things for. You know, keep

it quiet. Jesus wasn't trying to draw attention

to himself. He was trying to complete his mission.

But there came a point where Jesus was going

to have to do what had to be done. And Jesus'

mission was not just to come and to heal people

and to share with them the good news and to point

them to the Father and to let them know that

he was the way. to everlasting life, but for

that mission to be complete, Jesus was going

to have to give his life on a cross. And so during

the last week of Jesus' life, Jesus made his

way into Jerusalem for the final time. He made

his way into Jerusalem to fulfill what was prophesied

about him, to do what God the Father had called

him to do, and that was to give his life as a

ransom for you and I. For all who have sinned.

And so the time had come, and that's what we

see in this passage today, is that Jesus is coming

into Jerusalem for this final week of his life.

Luke chapter 19, verse 28. Excuse me, verse 29.

Luke 19:28

Luke chapter 19, verse 29. As he approached Bethphage

Luke 19:29

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 young donkey tied there,

on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring

it here. 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 young donkey,

Its owner said to them, Why are you untying the

donkey? The Lord needs it, they said. Then they

brought it to Jesus. And after throwing their

robes on the donkey, they helped Jesus get on

it. As he was going along, they were spreading

their robes 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. The king who comes in the name of the Lord

is the blessed one. 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. Let

us pray. God, we come to you, we thank you for

these good words. We thank you for Jesus, for

coming, for coming into town that day, dear Lord.

We thank you for what Jesus was going to do in

the coming days. I pray, dear Lord, that as we

look at this passage, that we see the humility

of Jesus, dear Lord. That we see the response

of the crowds. That we would check our response

today, dear Lord. As we hear this same good news.

that happened all these years ago, as we hear

about Jesus today, God, will we be those who

rejoice at his coming, or will we be those who

reject him? God, I pray that you would just let

your Holy Spirit be among us today, free us of

distractions and worries, all the things of the

world that may be competing for our attention.

I pray that in these few moments you meet us

where we are, dear Lord. that your Holy Spirit

would be among us, and that everything that is

said and done would be for the glory of Jesus

Christ. And I ask these things in Jesus' name.

Amen. On July the 23rd, 2009, in a little neighborhood

in New Jersey, it was a rainy day, and a homeowner

in a neighborhood had called the police. They

called the police because there was a kind of

disheveled looking man wearing a pair of black

sweatpants and two raincoats, kind of wandering

around the neighborhood and had wandered into

their yard. And so they called the police and

they said, hey, look, there's this eccentric

old man and he looks kind of shady and he's in

our neighborhood. Could you send somebody out?

And so they did. They sent an officer out. And

the officer arrived, and sure enough, the man

was still there. And he asked the guy his name,

of course. The guy's name was Robert. His friends

called him Bob, but his name was Robert. And

the police officer was questioning him, and he

proceeded to tell the police officer that he

was on tour with Willie Nelson locally. He was

on tour. And, of course, the officer knew better

than that. This old homeless guy was not. on

tour with Willie Nelson. But the officer nonetheless

humored the guy and said, well, I'll give you

an opportunity. The guy said, I don't have my

ID, but if you'll go back with me to my hotel,

I'll get my ID for you. And so the officer took

the guy back to his hotel, and he pulled out

his driver's license, and sure enough, he was

Robert Allen Zimmerman. Now, you probably don't

know Robert Allen Zimmerman, but you probably

do know Bob Dylan, and that's who it was. This

officer was getting ready to arrest Bob Dylan,

and he, in fact, was on tour with Willie Nelson.

And this disheveled old man was simply walking

around before they got ready to perform that

night. And here was a legend, a legend. Most

everybody has probably heard of Bob Dylan. You

may have even heard a song of his that you didn't

know it was him. Or perhaps if you saw him on

the street, perhaps you wouldn't recognize him

either. But Bob Dylan was a legend. But because

of his appearance, because of what he looked

like, he had been written off as a lunatic. And

that's kind of similar to what happened with

Jesus. And Jesus had accomplished many things.

Man, you look at what Bob Dylan has accomplished.

He's got all kind of medals. He's won the Pulitzer

Prize. He's a ten -time Grammy winner. He had

all these accomplishments that were well known,

but not to the people who saw him that day. The

people who saw him that day didn't see a rock

star with all these accomplishments. Had they

been in a stadium and he had been introduced

and called to the stage, here's Bob Dylan, they

would have cheered. They would have rejoiced.

But seeing him on the street in sweatpants with

two raincoats on, they wrote him off. This is

a crazy dude. And so it was with Jesus. Jesus

had accomplished many great things. Jesus had

healed people. Jesus had healed the sick. He

had raised the dead. He had caused the blind

to see. He had caused the lame to walk. He had

caused the deaf to hear. And Jesus' name had

spread. And some of them wrote Jesus off as a

lunatic. They said, this dude is crazy. What

they were looking for, in a sense, was a rock

star. There were a lot of people who were looking

for the Messiah because what we call the Old

Testament was full of prophecies of this Messiah

who was going to come. And the Messiah that was

going to come... He was going to be a pretty

big deal because he was going to free people.

He was going to deliver people. He was finally

going to bring victory for God, for God's people.

And God's people in their mind had a certain

way that they thought that that was going to

look. I mean, they knew what kings looked like.

Kings were pretty spectacular folks. I mean,

they had palaces and they sat on thrones. They

wore the finest of clothes. They had servants.

They would speak and things would happen and

they would rule with an iron fist and they would

let their authority be made known to all that

I am the king and what I do, what I say, you

do. And they had this expectation, I believe,

of this type of king, that the Messiah would

come, he'd be ushered in, that his kingdom would

look... like other worldly kingdoms that kings

had and that he would begin to rule with an iron

fist. But when Jesus came onto the scene, he

did not really look like all the other kings.

There's one thing that is key about when Jesus

came and how Jesus served and how Jesus left

this world. And the key that we see throughout

the life of Jesus is humility. Jesus did not

come as a proud king, as a showy king. Jesus

came with all authority in the world, but he

didn't lord it over people. Jesus didn't say,

I am the son of God, bow before me. He could

have said that, and rightfully so. He is the

son of God, and one day we shall all bow before

him. Jesus didn't come with that type of heart.

He came with a humble heart. He even told his

disciples, he said, look, the rulers that you

see in this world, that's how they use their

power. They lord it over people. But Jesus told

his disciples, he said, it must not be that way

among you. He said, you must be a servant of

all. Now that's good for us to think about. We

probably don't want to have that type of heart.

In some ways, have a proud heart. We want to

be the one that's barking out the orders. We

want to be the one that's in the place of honor.

I think our human tendency is we kind of like

those things. We like feeling like we have the

power and we like feeling like we have the authority

and we like feeling like we're somebody. But

Jesus warns and the scripture warns, hey, you

got to be careful not to fall into that trap.

Jesus not only came and told us, What to do?

Jesus showed us what to do. For three plus years,

Jesus came in humility. He was born, born with

the cattle. He was born and laid in a manger.

There wasn't any fanfare. There weren't royal

trumpets blasting in the streets. He wasn't laid

in a golden crib. He laid a little hay wrapped

in swaddling clothes. From the get -go, Jesus

came in humility. Jesus' concern was not about

drawing attention to himself. Jesus' main goal

and desire from beginning to end was doing the

will of his Father. That's what Jesus wanted

to do. Father, I want to do your will. I want

to serve you, God. I want to serve these people.

I want to help these people. I want to show them

the truth, God. I want to lead them on the way.

I want to make a way for them. God, they cannot

do this on their own. They cannot be forgiven

of their sins on their own. And so Jesus humbly

came to this old nasty world that's full of all

the junk that you and I go through, and Jesus

said, I'm going to come, and I'm going to make

a path that they can follow me. It takes a lot

of humility. So Jesus was unlike all the other

leaders of his day. The other religious leaders,

it was a lot of them we see in Scripture, and

they just, their heart wasn't right, and Jesus

called them out on that. And Jesus came with

a whole different heart. He came with a heart

of humility, and people recognize that. Now,

I think we would all agree that we probably aren't

drawn as much to leadership. That rules with

an iron fist. We probably aren't drawn as much

to someone who has the authority that always

says, I am the one in charge. You do what I say.

I'm the leader here. Well, that's not very appealing.

When Jesus came onto the scene, he didn't have

that heart at all. Jesus just loved people. People

that other religious leaders didn't love. Jesus

would hang out with kind of the rough folks,

the tax collectors and the sinners. And he was

even called out for it. Like, why are you doing

this? Why are you associating with these lower

people? Because that's who Jesus came to save.

He said, look, I came to save the sick. It's

the sick that need a doctor. The well don't need

a doctor. There were plenty of religious people

that thought they were well, that thought they

were holier than thou. And there wasn't a whole

lot of hope for them if they continued to have

that heart. But Jesus said, I'm here to have

compassion on those of you who are struggling,

those of you who are sick, those of you who know

your sin. Jesus wasn't okay with their sin. He

told the woman caught in adultery that was brought

before him. Man, they were ready to stone her.

They were ready. And Jesus so cleverly said,

okay, that's fine. You want to stone her? Well,

whoever's never sinned before, you go ahead and

start the stoning. You throw the first one. And

the scripture says that nobody threw a stone

and all of her accusers were gone. And Jesus

said to her, does anybody condemn you? She said,

no, there was nobody there. And Jesus says, neither

do I. Perhaps we are not so unlike that woman.

Maybe our sin is not adultery. Maybe it is. But

whatever our sin is, when we read the scripture,

we are brought before Jesus with our sin before

us. And we feel the condemnation and the guilt

of that. And maybe those around us make us feel

that even more. But as we sit at the feet of

Jesus, If we would come and seek him and look

up to him and acknowledge our sinfulness and

ask for forgiveness, Jesus would say to you,

neither do I condemn you either. And he told

her afterwards, go and sin no more. And so Jesus'

humility was evident in the way that he treated

people, the way that he interacted. He's willing

to associate with anybody. Sadly, the most religious

people, a lot of them, Didn't want anything to

do with him. He would have associated with them

just the same. Anybody who would come to seek

and to try to learn and to be healed, those with

faith and those with the desire, Jesus was willing

to explain to them. Even the disciples, they

didn't understand a lot of stuff Jesus said.

They were so clueless. And they'd say, you've

got to explain that to us. And he would. They

were slow, and he was so patient with them, as

he is with us. And we see in this story that

we read today the humility of Jesus once again.

Now, he didn't come into town with this big,

beautiful horse that he was riding on. He didn't

come being toted into town on a gold chair with

people toting him in for all to see. He didn't

come with horns blowing. He didn't come wearing

a fancy robe. He didn't come with anything. That

probably would have been associated with a king

coming into town. Instead, he came to town on

a donkey. That's a pretty lowly animal. Even

the fact that he came on a donkey showed his

humility. A beast of burden. Not a war horse.

Not fancy. Not extravagant. But Jesus continued

coming into town at the conclusion of his mission.

In the same way that he had started his mission.

In humility. Now there were certainly plenty

of people who recognized who Jesus was. We see

it in the passage we looked at today. That Jesus

had told his disciples, go find this donkey.

If they ask you what's going on, tell them the

Lord needs it. It all worked out the way Jesus

said. It was prophesied that the Messiah, the

Savior would come riding on a donkey. And sure

enough, Jesus was fulfilling. that Old Testament

passage. And as Jesus began to make his way down

the road on the donkey, the crowds that were

rejoicing in him began to humble themselves before

him. They began to take their robes and their

coats and whatever they were wearing, they began

to take it off and they began to place it on

the ground so that the king of kings would at

least have a... a path to walk on that wasn't

bare ground. He was at least worthy of something.

And they would take those palm branches and they

would place them on the ground. And in a sense,

they were rolling out the red carpet for him

as best that they could. And people were praising

and they were rejoicing. This is the one. This

is the Messiah. This is the King. Hosanna. You

see that in some of the gospel accounts. Hosanna

in the highest. That is a praise to the Lord.

That's acknowledging that Jesus is the Savior.

Save us, Lord. We praise you. Son of David, they

said. Acknowledging that, hey, we've read the

Old Testament Scriptures. And we know that the

Messiah was to be a descendant of David. And

we recognize, Jesus, that you are the Son of

David. We recognize, Jesus, that you are the

Messiah. And the people rejoice. And they humbled

himself before Jesus that day. There were some

who recognized who he was. They weren't sidetracked.

There were a lot of people who were looking for

the wrong kind of Jesus. They were looking for

the wrong kind of Jesus. They were looking for

that big, fancy, earthly -looking king. And when

all they saw was this humble, Crazy old man.

They wrote him off. They said, I don't know who

this guy is. But perhaps they should have paid

a little more attention to what he was doing

and to what he was saying. Some in the crowd,

they rejoiced. They said, this guy, this is the

one. But as we see at the end of the passage,

There were some that said, what's going on with

these people? These people are, this is crazy.

These people need to shut up. And Jesus says,

hey, look, even if everybody was to keep quiet,

even the stones would cry out. There were some

in the crowd that day that humbled themselves

before Jesus. They laid their robes on the ground

and they laid their palm branches on the ground

and they rejoiced. But there were others that

day who rejected him. They had seen him just

as everybody else had. No doubt they had heard

the stories. At least some of them, they had

to have. You don't see a guy walking around raising

people from the dead. Word like that kind of

spreads pretty quick. And they had heard of him.

But they chose to reject him. Because it wasn't

the Jesus they were looking for. I don't know

what kind of Jesus you're looking for today.

Some people, I think, are looking for a Jesus

that's just going to be more like a genie in

the lamp. He just grants our wishes and makes

all of our problems disappear at once and gives

us everything that we ever want. But Jesus has

given us everything that we ever need. I don't

know what kind of Jesus you're looking for. I

can only tell you about the Jesus of the Bible.

He is a Jesus who loves you. He is a Jesus who

gave his life for you. He is a Jesus that did

not come and rule with an iron fist. He was a

Jesus that even though all authority had been

given to him, he did not use it for himself,

but instead he gave his life for you and I. Jesus

was a faithful servant. He was a humble servant.

He was full of love and full of grace and full

of compassion. I don't know what kind of Jesus

you're looking for, but I can tell you that's

the Jesus that you need. For that is the Jesus

who has compassion on you today, who wants to

forgive your sins today, who wants to give you

grace today. Who wants to give you peace today.

Who wants to give you hope today. And no, I can't

guarantee you that the Lord's going to make all

of your problems go away. Perhaps He will. Sometimes

He very much answers our prayers. But other times

we still have to go through the struggles of

life. But I can promise you this. Even if all

of your problems don't go away, the Lord will

give you the strength to get through them. And

a peace that you cannot imagine. And a joy that

you cannot imagine when you know that your sins

are forgiven. And that comes from a humble Savior

that we have in Jesus Christ. He has humbly come

to serve us and has done so by giving His life

on the cross. Will you humble yourself before

Him today? We don't have to lay our robes and

our palm branches down today. But perhaps there

are acts of service in our life that we can humble

ourselves and serve Him in some way. That we

just humble our heart before Him and praise Him.

That we humble our heart before Him and acknowledge

our sins and ask Him to forgive us. That we humble

ourselves and say, Lord, here am I. Send me.

I want to serve as You have served, dear Lord.

As You have given me an example. May I serve

others in that way. May you give me a heart of

love and grace and compassion. That I live a

life that is not about me, but about serving

God the Father. And that's exactly what Jesus

did. Jesus rode into town all those years ago.

Some rejoice, others rejected. What about you

this morning? Will you rejoice in the Messiah

or will you reject him? The choice is yours.

Let's pray. God, we come to you this morning.

We thank you for your good words. I thank you

for each one that's here today, dear Lord. I

pray that if we have heard the gospel of Jesus

Christ and heard that he has come, dear Lord,

that we would be those who humble ourselves before

you today. I pray that there are some that don't

know Jesus. They would repent and seek him today.

I pray that those who do know Him would rejoice

in Him. That those who don't would come to know

Him and rejoice in Him, dear Lord. Help us not

to be those who walk away here today rejecting

Him. What a foolish decision that would be. Help

us to be those who have humility and who walk

in it. And I ask these things in Jesus' name.