SERMON: God of This City

GOD OF THIS CITY

Palm Sunday

5 April 2009

 

I. Introduction

    -- turn in Bibles to Luke 19

    -- this morning marks the start of Holy Week or Passion Week -- this week celebrates Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday -- today -- and continues on through Maundy Thursday -- the night when Jesus had the Last Supper with His disciples and washed their feet and was betrayed by Judas -- the night when Jesus gave us His command to go forth and love one another

    -- it continues on through Good Friday -- the day when Jesus was beaten and crucified and killed on the cross at Calvary -- when His body was placed in a borrowed tomb -- and it culminates in Easter -- the day when we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus and His victory over sin and death once and for all

    -- Holy Week has always been the most important week in the Christian calendar -- without this week -- without the events that took place during this week -- there would be no Christianity -- there would be no forgiveness of sins -- there would be no hope for the resurrection of the body or for eternal life with God

    -- and, so, even though we know the story of Holy Week -- even though we are very familiar with the stories of Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter -- it is important for us to continually revisit it -- to proclaim it's meaning to our children and our grandchildren -- to proclaim it's meaning to our world -- and to reclaim it as an essential part of our faith and our life in Christ

 

II. Scripture Lesson (Luke 19:28-44)

    -- so this morning, I want us to look again at a familiar passage -- the story of Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday

    -- so, if you would, please look with me at verse 28 in Luke 19

 

28. After Jesus had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.

29. As he approached Bethphage and Bethany at the hill called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples, saying to them,

30. "Go to the village ahead of you, and as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here.

31. If anyone asks you, `Why are you untying it?' tell him, `The Lord needs it.'"

32. Those who were sent ahead went and found it just as he had told them.

33. As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, "Why are you untying the colt?"

34. They replied, "The Lord needs it."

35. They brought it to Jesus, threw their cloaks on the colt and put Jesus on it.

-- Jesus has been making His way to Jerusalem for some time -- He knows exactly what is coming -- He knows what events are going to happen during Holy Week

    -- Jesus has told His disciples time and time again that He had to go to Jerusalem -- that He would be betrayed into the hands of the chief priests and that He would suffer and die but that He would be raised from the dead in victory on the third day

    -- Jesus had been to Jerusalem before -- He had worshiped and taught in the temple before -- but now He's coming with a different purpose -- now He's coming to proclaim Himself King of Israel -- now He's coming to proclaim Himself as God of this city

    -- so, as we read in the Bible in the passages before this, Jesus leaves the City of Jericho and continues on towards Jerusalem -- He follows the road from Jericho up to the Mount of Olives until He gets to the villages of Bethpage and Bethany -- when He gets there, He has His disciples get a donkey colt for Him to ride --- and in verse 35, Luke tells us that when Jesus' disciples come back with the colt, they put Jesus on it and He continues on the road to Jerusalem

 

    -- there's a couple of important things in these verses for us to consider

    -- first, the colt -- why did Jesus have His disciples get Him a colt? -- was He tired? -- did He need a break? -- did He just not feel like walking anymore?

    -- no, of course not -- Jesus was used to walking -- He was used to traveling -- it was not uncommon for Him and His disciples to walk miles and miles in a day -- it was only two miles from Bethany to Jerusalem -- not that great a distance -- even at a slow pace, Jesus could have walked there in less than an hour

    -- so, if that's not the reason for the donkey, what is? -- it goes back to a prophecy that Zechariah made in Zechariah 9:9 -- Zechariah proclaimed that the Messiah would come riding into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey -- in Jesus' day, the regional custom was for kings and nobles in a procession to ride into town on the back of a donkey -- so by riding the donkey those last two miles into Jerusalem, Jesus was proclaiming to Jerusalem, "Your King has come"

 

    -- second, the path Jesus took to Jerusalem was significant -- He could have come into town from a variety of different roads -- but He chose to circle around the city and to come in from the east -- from the Mount of Olives

    -- now, when we think of the Mount of Olives, we typically think of it as being just a small hill outside of Jerusalem -- but actually, the Mount of Olives is a mountain ridge that lays directly east of Jerusalem -- it's about a mile long and rises to a height of about 2700 feet -- about 200 feet higher than Mount Zion -- the mountain that Jerusalem is built on -- from the top of the Mount of Olives, you can look out across the Kidron Valley and have a commanding view of Jerusalem, especially of the temple mount

    -- it was from this high vantage point that Matthew tells us that Jesus looked out over the city and wept over how they had rejected God's word and His prophets -- and how He had proclaimed that He had longed to gather the children of Israel together under Him as a hen gathers her chicks under her wing -- but how they refused

    -- it was from this high vantage point that Jesus now travels into the city -- now what makes Jesus' journey from the Mount of Olives to the city significant is the fact that Zechariah had prophesied in Zechariah 14:4-5 that the Lord would come into the city on this very road -- carrying with Him all of His holy ones

    -- so, in other words, by riding a donkey down from the Mount of Olives and crossing the Kidron Valley and entering Jerusalem from the east, Jesus was proclaiming to Israel that He was Messiah -- that He was God -- that He was their King -- and He was coming to gather them under His wing

 

    -- verse 36

 

36. As he went along, people spread their cloaks on the road.

37. 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:

38. "Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!" "Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!"

39. Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, "Teacher, rebuke your disciples!"

40. "I tell you," he replied, "if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out."

 

-- as Jesus began His two-mile journey to Jerusalem, people began to gather around Him -- crowds came running and surrounded His procession -- people spread their cloaks on the road in front of Him so that He would literally ride into Jerusalem on a red carpet -- John tells us that they waved palm branches as Jesus passed by, signifying that Jesus was going to bring peace to the land of Israel once again

    -- and all along the way, the people shouted out in loud voices, "Hosanna -- Hosanna -- blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord" -- or, as Luke has it here, "Blessed in the King who comes in the name of the Lord"

    -- Luke tells us in verse 37 that the whole crowd of disciples -- the whole crowd of people who had been following Jesus -- began to praise God for all the miracles they had seen Jesus do

    -- and there's something important to consider there -- Jesus was making His triumphal entry into Jerusalem -- for three years, He had traveled around Israel and Samaria -- preaching and teaching and doing miracles -- He had healed the sick -- He had given sight to the blind -- with a touch from His hand, lepers were cleansed and the lame walked

    -- Jesus had done all of that throughout the land of Israel, but not in Jerusalem -- and now, He was leaving the lands where His miracles had been performed -- He was leaving the land where His authority and power and deity was known and recognized -- and He was going to a place where He was unknown -- where the people only knew of Him by rumor and not by sight -- in a very real sense, Jesus was leaving the land of light and traveling to a land of darkness, a land that had yet to be touched by the power of God

    -- all along the way, the crowds of people cheered and worshiped Him because of the great things that He had done -- and when the Pharisees heard them, they were incensed -- they were extremely upset because the crowd was proclaiming Jesus as Lord and Messiah -- "Rebuke your disciples," they cried out -- "Tell them to stop -- what they are doing is wrong"

    -- but Jesus told them in verse 40, "If they keep quiet, the stones will cry out" -- in other words, Jesus was telling the Pharisees, "The people cry out because of the great things I have done -- and, even though you don't hear it, all of Creation is crying out because of the great things I will do here in this place -- I have come -- My light and power have come -- and a new day is dawning in Jerusalem"

    

III. God Of This City

    -- C.S. Lewis once wrote that "a great many things have gone wrong with this world that God made -- and that God insists, and insists very loudly, on our putting them right again" -- that is the very reason why Jesus rode into Jerusalem on that first Palm Sunday over 2000 years ago -- to put things right in the world again and to give us the power to put things right in His name

    -- Jesus rode into a city that only knew the great things that He had done -- but Jesus was coming to do greater things there -- He was coming to change a world -- He was coming to change eternity -- and He still does just that, if we just look

 

    -- there's a song out right now that is my current favorite -- it's by a group from Ireland called, "Blue Tree," and the song is called "God Of This City" -- when I started thinking about Palm Sunday, I couldn't help but think about this song -- the story behind it is remarkable and I want to share it with you

    -- Blue Tree had been invited by some friends to travel to Thailand to be part of a Christian worship event there in that country -- the lead singer for the group wrote that this was the darkest place anyone would ever go to -- physically and spiritually -- they said you can just feel the evil there -- you can just feel the enemy all over that place

    -- the band played for several days in a resort area there in Thailand -- and they said it was great -- they really experienced God's presence there -- but they felt called to do more -- and so they told their friends, "If you can get us anywhere else to play -- anywhere -- we want to play -- we just want to do what we do in the middle of somewhere and go head-on [against the evil in this place]"

    -- there was a bar there called the Climax Bar -- it's on a street that is filled with every vice imaginable -- thousands of prostitutes -- including children as young as eight and nine years old selling themselves on the street to whoever wanted them -- drugs -- alcohol -- gambling -- a den of iniquity -- a cesspool of evil

    -- the owners of this bar said that Blue Tree could come in and sing if they brought a group of people with them and if the people agreed to buy drinks during the entire show -- the owners didn't know that Blue Tree was a Christian band -- in fact, the band said most of the people there didn't even speak English -- all the owners wanted was to get someone in there who would spend money

    -- it turns out the bar was a strip club and brothel -- but for two hours -- standing right there on the stage next to the stripper poles -- Blue Tree lifted God up in praise -- in the middle of the darkness, they did the same thing the people did as Jesus rode into Jerusalem -- they praised Him for what He had done -- they praised Him for His miracles -- for His forgiveness of sin -- for His victory over death

    -- and as they were singing, God spoke to the band -- all of a sudden, the lead singer started singing the phrase, "Greater things," over and over again -- and he said it felt like God was prophesying over that city -- over the evil in that land

    -- before they knew it, God had given them the song, "God Of This City" -- played for the first time on earth in a brothel -- played for the first time on earth in a place of evil -- played to proclaim God's presence and plan for the people in that city in Thailand

    -- here's the words that God gave them that night:

 

    -- You're the God of this city -- you're the King of these people -- You're the Lord of this nation -- You are

    -- You're the light in this darkness -- You're the hope to the hopeless -- You're the peace to the restless -- You are

    -- There is no one like our God -- There is no one like our God

    -- For greater things have yet to come -- and greater things are still to be done in this City -- For greater things have yet to come -- and greater things are still to be done here

    -- We believe -- We believe in you, God

 

IV. Closing

    -- the message of this song is the same one that Jesus gave to the City of Jerusalem and to the world when He rode into town on a donkey 2000 years ago

    -- great miracles have been done -- great things have been done in the past -- but we don't live in the past -- greater things have yet to come -- greater things are still to be done in this city -- greater things are still to be done in this place

 

    -- Jesus was telling the people on the road to Jerusalem that day to look ahead -- to look forward to the greater things that were yet to come -- to the greater things that were still to be done -- because Jerusalem was not only the place where Jesus was to die -- it was also the place where He would be resurrected -- where sins would be forgiven -- where death would be conquered -- where the Church of Christ would be born

 

    -- God is still in the business of doing greater things -- and one day, that street in Thailand where the Climax Bar is located, will resound with the praises of God as darkness flees and every knee bows at the name of Jesus

 

    -- the question before us this morning is, "What greater things does God want to do in this place? What greater things does God want to do in you?"

    -- take a moment and think about what has happened in this place -- of the lives that have been changed at this altar -- of the miracles that have been done -- of the praises that have been lifted up

    -- too many times, we are like the crowd on the road to Jerusalem -- we praise God for what He has done -- we praise Him for the past while the darkness closes in -- we walk through places of evil in our communities and in our world and we look back to what God has done, rather than ahead to what God can do

 

    -- what greater things are yet to come here? -- what greater things are still to be done in this city and in this community and in our hearts?

    -- God is calling us to action this morning -- He is calling us to battle -- He is calling us to carry His light to the darkness -- His hope to the hopeless -- His peace to the restless -- He is calling us to greater things

    -- this morning, as we begin our celebration of Holy Week, we are going to share together the sacrament of Holy Communion to unite us with each other and with Christ and to fill us again with His power to do great things in His name

    -- let's close in prayer, and then we'll join together in this sacrament

 

    -- let us pray