Marcel: We're going to look at the triumph, the tragedy and the temple,
the triumph, the tragedy and the temple.
Let's go to father in prayer.
Father in heaven, I thank you so much for already this chance to
build each other up to encourage.
I know I've been encouraged.
I've been strengthened in my faith just in some few conversations and God, we're
grateful that we can sing some songs, God, and that we can think about who you are
through the words that we sing out to you.
We can be reminded of your promises and your faithfulness to us.
And Father, we're grateful so much for the gospels that recorded your son's
life, his death, and his resurrection.
Thank you for the, uh, uh, uh, example that Jesus set.
Thank you so much that we can learn from the scriptures and apply his teachings,
his, his truth to our lives today.
God, we ask for you to, to, to cast to the side anything that would distract.
So that we can focus in and commune and hear from you this morning.
In the name of Jesus, Amen.
Amen.
There's a, uh, we have a little handout.
We'd like to do this for a series.
Uh, we have a little handout.
If you want a physical copy, you can go and raise your hand and some of
the ushers will go ahead and do that.
But we're going to be going through the Gospel of Luke.
It's also in your, uh, in, on the church app.
So if you, uh, have the church app and you go to the inbox there, maybe it
already popped up as a notification.
But, uh, you can go there and there's a, a, a handout on there.
But we didn't make a, a, a, a copy for every single person because we know that
as soon as you hit those doors, you are going to fold this and throw it away.
And so we gave you a digital copy so you can look through it and
you can get a little background about the gospel of Luke.
And so just real quickly here.
The Gospel of Luke is really a biography about Jesus.
And so Luke was actually not, uh, he was actually not a direct disciple of Jesus.
He became a disciple of Jesus later after Jesus's death and resurrection.
He was actually a companion and missionary of the Apostle Paul.
And he was a doctor by profession.
But as we can see through his work, he also really was a great historian for us.
Especially we reap the benefits of his working.
So he decided I'm going to research.
I'm going to go to the eyewitnesses.
And I'm going to interview them and I'm going to go ahead and write out
a biography about Jesus and he sent it to a person named Theophilus and
so we speculate as to who that was and what all that was about there
and in the context but it was written approximately in the in the 60s A.
D.
Most scholars believe it was before 70 A.
D.
And so he writes this gospel so that again we can know who Jesus is that we
can trust in what we know about our faith.
In Jesus, and so we're going to walk through again the last couple of chapters
of the gospel of Luke and we're going to look at the final days of Jesus's
life before his death and resurrection and, and, uh, look at some of the days
of which we call the passion week.
And so this is from Palm Sunday, the Sunday before Jesus's resurrection
until the day of resurrection.
That's what we're going to be doing for the next several weeks.
And so that gives us some context here of our series and of the gospel of Luke.
Church, are you with me?
All right.
So let's go ahead and let's get into it.
We're going to actually start off in Luke chapter 9 in verse 51.
It says, as the time approached for him talking about Jesus to
be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem.
And so we start there so that we can understand so starting off
from chapter 9 verse 51 all the way until the rest of the gospel is
talking about this travel narrative.
And so Jesus is now so everything you read from this point on all the
way up until chapter 19 is Jesus on his way to Jerusalem for the Passover
feast, which is one of the three major holidays for the Jewish nation.
And so Jesus now, as we're going to go here into the text, he's
been on his way knowing this is it.
This is what I came for.
This is my mission and this is my purpose.
And so he resolutely sets out for Jerusalem, knowing what he
will face, knowing he will face the cross, but also knowing that
he will raise on the third day.
And so we take it up and we're going to start off with the triumphal
entry in Luke chapter 19 and verse 28 church Are you with me here?
All right, let's go after Jesus had said this he went on ahead going up to
Jerusalem as he approached Bethphage and Bethany at the hill called the Mount
of Olives He sent two of his disciples saying to them go to the village ahead
of you And as you enter it, you will find a cold tide there, which no one has
ever ridden Untied and bring it here.
If anyone asks you, why are you untying it?
Say The Lord needs it, man, you gotta love that about Jesus.
I wish I had that type of authority.
Why are you doing this?
Well, because the Lord says so.
Okay.
And then he says on, he says, those who were sent ahead when and founded
just as he had told them, as they were untying the coats, its owners asked
them, why are you untying the coat?
They replied, the Lord needs it.
They brought it to Jesus, threw their cloaks on the coats 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 to the Mount of Olives,
the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices
for all the miracles they had seen.
The Gospel of John talks about how Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead.
So that was one of the miracles that they had seen.
And so if you had seen this, you would be impressed.
As well.
And so as they're walking around, they say, blessed is the King who
comes in the name of the Lord.
Citing an Old Testament verse, 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.
Let's stop right there.
This is the triumphal entry because this is Jesus declaring publicly that
he is the long awaited King and Messiah.
Up until this point in his ministry, Jesus has really deferred or
kind of dodged a lot of public admit, uh, uh, uh, admiration.
When people wanted to make him king and they want to do some, Jesus
said, no, we're not going to do that.
But here and only here in this moment, he allows this praise, this public display.
To announce to all that the king has come.
That the Messiah is here.
And so Jesus makes this king's entrance.
And he rides in on a donkey.
And in ancient times, if a king rode in on a donkey, it
meant he was coming for peace.
If he rode in on a horse, he was coming for war.
And so Jesus, as he rides in, he's declaring, I'm the
king who's coming for peace.
And the peace that Jesus wants to make is the peace between God and mankind.
And so he makes this public display and he rides in and he declares himself not only
as the king of peace, but the long awaited Messiah, the chosen one, the Christ.
Who had God's people have been looking for, for many and many years and searching
and waiting for Jesus saying, I am him.
And he goes and he fulfills one of the prophecies in Zechariah chapter
9 verse 9, which is a prophecy.
And those in this and during this time of Jesus knew and understood that this was a
prophecy about the long awaited Messiah.
It reads, Rejoice greatly.
Daughter Zion.
Shout daughter Jerusalem.
See your king comes to you righteous and victorious lowly
and riding on a donkey on a coat.
The foil of a donkey.
And so Jesus is declaring making it known everybody.
The man is here.
The Messiah is here.
The king is here.
And here's what's incredible about it is that the gospel John tells
us that hey there was actually.
Jesus was a marked man.
The, the, the leaders at this time said, Hey, if you guys see
Jesus come over to the Passover, let us know so we can arrest him.
And what does Jesus do?
He doesn't come in hiding and sneaking around.
He doesn't come in talking about, Don't call me Jesus, call me Jesus.
Jesus comes in loud and we're talking he's coming down from the Mount of Olives
and he has to cross the Kidron Valley and I've been in Jerusalem and so I've
actually stayed in a hotel in the Mount of Olives and so you come down and he's on
a donkey so he's taking his sweet little time and he goes in and the people are
yelling they're throwing cloaks and we know from the other part the other Gospels
they're putting palm branches on the on the ground that he walks in so everybody
knows what's going on why because they're shouting Blessed be the highest in king.
And Jesus is declaring the king is here.
Now some people get it and some people don't.
Some people understand.
Some people think he's the Messiah but they're thinking it's a political kingdom.
Some people understand what he's doing.
And now the Pharisees, they're upset.
And potentially, they're maybe also afraid that, hey, if you, they keep
calling you this king and the Roman officials are going to get upset,
we're going to have a problem.
Don't do that.
Or they just know, man, you have the audacity to allow these people to
proclaim that you're the Messiah.
You've got to stop them right now.
And what does Jesus say?
He says, even if they stop, the stones will cry out.
And there's so much that we can learn from this, but that the
praise for Jesus is appropriate.
Jesus is saying, Hey, this praise right now, it's appropriates.
It's reasonable.
Why?
Because it's true.
But also his kingship is a reality, whether it is recognized by people or not.
You see, Jesus is Lord, whether you or those outside of this
room recognize it or not.
But he is the true, the one and only Son of God, the Messiah, the
King of kings and the Lord of lords.
He said, even if we don't have a worship service, I'm still that guy.
So we continue to the tragic reality.
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 one stone on another because you did not recognize
the time of God's coming to you.
There's a tragic reality here.
As Jesus approaches, he looks out and he sees the city and it brings him to tears.
And why?
Because God's people don't recognize who he is.
The people don't fully get it.
They don't know that the Messiah, the one that they've been waiting for, they've
been praying for, that he is here and he's not bringing a political kingdom.
He's bringing God's eternal, universal, spiritual kingdom.
They don't recognize it.
And he's saddened by it.
And he knows.
You guys have seen and you've heard the miracles, but you missed out on who I am.
Some think he's a political figure, a false teacher, or just a miracle worker.
But they rejected him as Lord.
And now Jesus, knowing what's going to happen, knows that there's
judgment that awaits those who reject.
And in this particular instance, he's actually prophesying what would happen
to Jerusalem and the Jewish nation at this time is that in AD 70, the Roman
Empire would go and destroy the temple and that there is no walls that would
stand for the people in Jerusalem.
And so even to this day you have the wailing wall and that was just the wall
that would hold up the uh, uh, uh, the, the, the, um, the, the temple there.
And so Jesus knows it and he said, he's like, man, this is
just, it moves him to tears.
Why?
You're going to suffer the consequences.
You rejected me because you didn't recognize who I am.
You didn't know that you had peace available to you.
Not only peace for this life, which I believe Jesus offers, but eternal peace
with God, the father and the people forfeited by rejecting God's son.
And so one of the things I think we can learn is there's no peace with
God for anyone who rejects Jesus.
There's no peace with the almighty for anyone who rejects Jesus.
All because they did not recognize nor accept God's coming through Jesus He
says you didn't recognize the time of God's coming to you God has been here the
divine one has been here and you missed out you forfeited and you rejected it
and Now there's consequences for their rejection, you know, the tragic reality
Caused Jesus to weep what compassion?
What's there?
I know for me, I wouldn't have had that type of compassion.
I would have been like, yeah, that's what y'all get.
You acting up.
You want to be stubborn, stiff neck.
Mm hmm.
Go ahead.
But Jesus is still making an appeal to the masses.
The king is here.
Please take advantage now.
Because if you don't, you'll miss out in this lifetime and in the lifetime to come.
Tragic.
Reality we go to the temple clearing church.
Are you still with me here?
Says 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 priest, the
teacher, the law and the leaders among the people were trying to kill him.
Yet they cannot find any way to do it because all the people hung on his words.
You know, I love this passage.
Man, I wish I could see it.
I went and did some research a couple years ago, like, I wonder what
movies, like, capture this scene.
And, uh, there's one that was wild.
Like, Jesus is like a samurai.
You know what I'm saying?
Like, they got this whip, and he's like, Hi ya!
Hi ya!
You know what I'm saying?
I was like, I don't think that's how it went.
But I love that imagery.
You know what I'm saying?
Cause sometimes we get Jesus like, Oh, he's got the little lambs.
You know, peace, peace, peace.
Jesus came through like, man, I'm wrecking shop.
Man, y'all better get up outta here.
Man, get, get, man, you better get up outta here with that.
He's with no punk, you know what I'm saying?
But he clears out the temple.
Why?
Because they dishonored and misused the temple for themselves.
They dishonored God's name and glory.
You see this court where they were selling was the court of the Gentiles.
So all non Jews who worship God, this was the area they can go.
They couldn't go beyond that.
And so this area is supposed to be their area for worship.
However, now it's a marketplace.
Now it's a, it's a flea markets and now things are being sold.
And what also would take place is there was exploitation.
You had to transfer your coinage.
And so, you had to have a certain coinage.
And then, you had to purchase animals for the sacrifice.
And so, people would jack up the prices.
Just like, you know, some industries do.
They know, Oh, something big is in town.
We're gonna jack up the prices.
And so, people were doing that.
And so, now you have exploitation.
And Jesus can't take it.
I know this has been going on.
But we're gonna make a statement.
And this is gonna stop here this week.
And so Jesus, he defends God's glory and he defends the people.
Have you ever noticed what Jesus gets upset about?
When people defile God's name and glory, or they misuse and mistreat people.
What do you and I get upset about?
Do we get upset about the same things?
Or do we have a laundry list to go in addition to that?
You know, it's crazy when Jesus, when He endured ridicule or people said negative
things, He doesn't clear out the people.
He doesn't get upset like this.
But yet when people defile God's name and glory, or when they try to misuse and
exploit people, that gets them riled up.
Ooh, how I want to be like Jesus.
There's too much that I get upset about because it's about me.
And it's not about God, and it's not about people.
And it says that he, that they clung to his words.
You know, it's interesting, he clears out the temple, and where does he teach?
Right at the temple.
He said, we're gonna have the businessmen exit, and we're gonna
allow the worshippers to come in.
And this is gonna be my classroom.
It used to be a marketplace, but now it's my classroom.
And I'm gonna teach.
And he's going to teach powerfully and they're captivated by it.
They hung on his words.
Wow!
This is incredible.
We haven't heard this teaching before.
And so we see the triumph.
We see the tragedy.
And we see the temple being cleared out.
What does that mean for you and me?
What is that, how can we respond to this?
How does this apply for you and me today in 2025?
If you have something the Spirit's ministering to you now, go ahead and
write that down because God wants you to take note of that and He wants you
to think about that and allow that to minister to you later so it can produce
some type of fruit that He desires.
I want to share some things, I'm going to rattle off some things here that
I believe that God wants us to apply and think about in response to this.
And the main thing that I believe God is calling you and me to Is
this, is that the time is now.
The time is now.
The time is now to recognize who Jesus truly is.
And I know I'm talking to many who know who Jesus is.
But we better recognize and we better hold on to the truth of who Jesus truly is.
We better see Jesus for who he is and not something that he's not.
Just like many people missed it.
We don't want to miss it today.
Jesus is not some miracle worker, not a problem solver, a good guy, a moral
teacher, or one of many historic figures.
But he's the son of God, the Christ, and the Lord.
That's who Jesus is.
And we better recognize that.
We also know it's the time to recognize the time of God's coming.
The God's coming to you.
People didn't recognize that God had came to them.
And Jesus is coming to every one of us today.
You know, God comes to everyone giving all a chance.
Some, he gives a number of chances for a long period of time.
And for others, it's fewer times.
It's for a shorter period of time.
And so the time is now to respond to Jesus.
The time is now to respond to Jesus, not tomorrow, not next year, but today.
And we better take advantage.
And you and I, and I call you to take advantage of your chance to seek God.
Whether you have been a disciple of Jesus for 30 plus years, or
this is your first time hearing about the gospel for 30 minutes.
God is calling you to seek.
Your chance to seek him out, because if not, then you miss out on the peace
that is available to you and you also Unfortunately will suffer the consequences
later That's what we saw, right?
Jesus said hey, you you don't understand peace is available to you If you don't
get it now, man, you're gonna suffer you're gonna miss out and you're gonna
suffer consequence so if you and I If we don't respond to who Jesus really is,
then we're going to miss out on what's available, but then we'll face judgment.
And we're reminded again that judgment is real and it will come.
And it reminds me, I was, I was, uh, this week, no, it was last week.
Last week, as I was reading, I was reading through the Gospels
and I said, man, you know what?
Am I urgent anymore?
Am I urging in my repentance or do I go?
Uh, yeah, I'll just get open, but I'm not really going to be
urgent about dealing with my sin.
And then I thought about my neighbors and my friends and I go, yes, I
have a heart and yes, I reach out.
But am I urgent with getting the good news out to people?
Because the day of God's visiting is there and he wants me to share so
that they can know and have a chance at a relationship with the almighty.
But I'm thinking I'll give it next week.
I'll get to it another day.
I go, man, I need to be urgent.
The time is now for me to respond and work in conjunction with the
Holy Spirit and what Jesus wants.
Church, maybe you can't relate to that, but that's what God ministered to me with.
And so I want to repent and feel like I've made a decision to repent now my
deeds need to follow that decision But here's the thing as well the time is
now because Jesus he will clear out hypocrisy and He's going to clear out
the misuse of his name in his church
You see the temple Was the place that represented God's presence and
the people gathered And so now, what is the temple in modern day time?
It's you and me.
What do the scriptures teach?
Let's go ahead and let's look at it here real quickly here.
You know what, for some reason it's not clicking.
Can you go ahead and click that there, Eric, for me please?
1 Corinthians chapter 3, the modern temple of God is the
church and it's us individually.
Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's
spirit dwells in your midst?
If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy that person,
for God's temple is sacred.
And you together are that temple.
He's saying the church is the temple.
It's not this building.
No, we are the building of God, which God dwells in.
Then he also says this in 1 Corinthians 6, Don't you know that your bodies are
temples of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God?
You are not your own.
You were bought at a price.
Therefore, honor God with your bodies.
Your time is now that we make sure that we keep the church
and ourselves pure and holy.
Because God's going to clear any pollution out.
And so we need to work in conjunction in clearing out any pollution in our souls
and any pollution amongst God's people.
We need to address and confront sin and hypocrisy in our own lives
first and then in the church.
Oh, I only got a few amens on that.
No, no, no, this is what Jesus does.
If you're a follower of Jesus, then this is what you do.
You make sure you deal with your own hypocrisy, your own sin, your own
corruption, and then you work with God to help others deal with theirs.
And you do it out of love, not out of superiority, not to look down, but because
I love God's name, I love His people, and I refuse to allow that to be corrupted.
So I'm going to speak the truth to you, brother, because I want you
to speak the truth to me, because I don't want to see this corrupted.
How dare I let this happen?
How dare I let the temple become a den of robbers?
It better be a place of worship.
And I'm talking about myself, and I'm talking about the community.
You see, Jesus is gonna clear it out.
And it's either we're gonna be, we're gonna work with him.
We're gonna be in conjunction with him.
Or we're gonna be recipients of judgments.
Oh, we don't want to hear that.
That's old school.
That's like that old school song.
Sorry, that's reality.
That's the tragic reality.
But what a great opportunity.
What a great opportunity to be with God.
To see things be purified and be holy and righteous.
Isn't that what you want?
We all want that.
But we have to make a decision that the time is now.
It's not for later.
It's for now.
And we must hang on to every word of Jesus.
We must let Christ's teachings once again be the central concern of our church.
We hang on every word he says.
We admire, we appreciate the word of God.
We get in conversations after service over in the foyer
outside when we go out to eat.
And we're talking about God's word.
Hey, how did it minister to you today?
Hey, what are you reading?
How was God ministered to you?
Hey brother, let me share this scripture that can encourage you.
Sister, let me share this scripture that can help purify you.
We hang on his word.
We're captivated by it.
But we just don't admire it.
We don't just put nice little cool tweets or Instagram photos with it.
No, we live it out.
We're faithful.
We hold to his teachings.
That's how you and I are to hang on to every word of Jesus.
I believe this is the only proper response to Jesus, the king,
to Jesus, the Messiah, the provider of peace,
the one who is holy and pure, the one who purifies God's temple and
has the words of eternal life.
So as we can see, the triumph.
The tragic reality in the temple clearing, it calls for you and me
to realize that the time is now.
So wherever God has ministered to you, wherever you are in your walk, do not
allow it to just bounce off, but allow it to penetrate, to produce God's fruit
that he wants in your life, so that you can have a more faithfulness with
him and join him in his good work.
We're on the road to the resurrection.
The greatest day of all creation, where the Messiah rose again, conquering death,
so that those who would believe could have eternal life with the Almighty.
We're gonna close in communion.
Brothers and sisters, are you still with me here?
The emblems that we take right now represent Jesus body and blood
that, uh, were sacrificed so that you and I can have an opportunity.
An eternal relationship with God the father.
And as we go to the road, to the as we go through the road to the resurrection, we
know that's also through the cross where Jesus died and sacrificed himself for us.
And Jesus is the king who was worthy of worship and praise.
And the cross of Jesus leads us to praise, to worship, and to faithfulness.
And so we'll read again, Luke 19 verse 38, blessed is the king who
comes in the name of the Lord.
Peace in heaven and glory in the highest.
Let's pray.
Father, we thank you so much for Jesus.
For the road to the resurrection.
Thank you so much for his teachings, his example.
Thank you so much, God, that we have this opportunity, this grace
that you give us today to respond.
Father, may we be people that respond now, that respond to your
goodness, that respond to your grace, that respond to your gift
of mercy, that is all through love.
May we respond with faithfulness.
May we admire.
May we be in awe.
May it never become numb in our hearts, but may we be grateful for who you
are, for how much you love us and how we can even have the opportunity to
partner with you and your good work.
God, we are humbled and we are grateful and we praise you.
Blessed be your name.
You are the highest.
You are the most, you are the, the, the, the almighty.
You are God.
You are Savior.
You are King.
You are Lord.
You are inspiration.
You are purpose, our goal.
You are engine that drives us.
We are grateful.
We love you.
Thank you for today.
Thank you for the chance to hear.
And thank you that you do all this in love, grace, and mercy.
We pray in the name of Jesus.
Amen.