to think and pray about refutations and realities refutations and realities luke chapter nineteen starting in verse twenty eight i want to read through this section after jesus had said this he went on ahead going up to jerusalem as he approached bethpage 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 colt tied there which no one has ever ridden untie it and bring it here if anyone asks you why are you in tying it tell him the lord needs it those who are sent it and 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 a loud voice is for all the miracles they had seen blessed is the king who comes in the name of the lord some of the fairest seas in the crowd said this to jesus when they heard peace in heaven in glory in the highest they said teacher rebuke your disciples so many layers to this story it appears to be this wonderful time of praise kind of an outdoor praise service that somewhat spontaneously is breaking for the jesus enters into jerusalem but it's far more complex than that if you take a look close look at this passage many of the people have fallen into some common traps so let's take a look at these traps as it increases our awareness trap number one being so full of religion but so empty without jesus as the fairest sees so full of religion so empty without jesus in john chapter twelve verse nineteen we read in this passage the fear is the say look how the whole world has gone after him it's so ironic isn't it i mean the spiritual leaders supposedly in that community were the sees and they're missing the messiah they're missing the obvious have you ever just missed the obvious and in there it isn't jesus everyone praising him and they refuse to acknowledge him john chapter twelve verse fifteen the crowd says blessed is he who comes in the name of the lord they're quoting psalm one eighteen and then they even add blessed is the king the king of israel so again the praise continues and one of the faires your followers jesus the fairest these are dead on the inside they're dead on the inside and when you're dead on the inside a lot of times people want to destroy something that's good when you're dead on the inside they're trying to destroy what is good in so there's never any victory when you have religion but you reject jesus as a christian leader i just respected for a long time and you know is a turning point when i was listening him early on in ministry and he was just saying he had this checklist for how the night would go and then someone came alongside of on this this young lady and she just said i just had such a great night with jesus and louis this conviction of you know i just did a whole night a ministry all my checklist and i haven't connected at all with jesus this entire time and just what a reminder that it's easy to just get a lot of religion but two different participations i mean this this lady connecting with jesus and we get beyond just going through the religious motions you know in a crowd there can be a lot who have religion but then who's connecting with jesus and so that was the opportunity and the more we commit to jesus the more we connect with jesus the more we come to life coming to life isn't coincidence it's connecting and committing to jesus so that's one thing that's happening in the crowd here's a second trap this is being faithful only when it is convenient and popular and this represents the crowd and some the disciples being faithful only when it's convenient and popular so i mean kind of a cool thing the disciples take their cloaks put  basically saddling the donkey others start putting down their cloaks and they're the cloaks go then they pull out palm branches and they're praising the lord with palm branches if you look in the greek palm branches actually thunder  sticks that's a joke so today you know we've got our thunder sticks i was just thinking of this was a crowd today of jesus coming through town you know people would be getting to six wouldn't some people be selling thunder stix trying to make some money on that event get your jesus kind of like holiday lujan so it's both a request and a praise and there's shouting hosanna and you just hear that hosanna echoed throughout the city and as that's happening the real question is who's going to be doing this when friday comes who's going to be doing this when it's not popular and convenient who's going to be saying stop the crucifixion who's saying i stand with jesus and how many it be interesting how many here that were praising him actually end up saying crucify him crucify let barabus go you know by the end of the week there's no to understand they've hidden the palm branches and they say oh i'm wearing my cloak i why would i put my cloak down for jesus so a huge change in just a couple of days crowds are fickle so what is the elephant in the road you've heard that metaphor there's an elephant in the room some really big no one wants to talk about what is the elephant in the road here it is who is really committed to jesus in this passage the elephant in the road is who is really committed to jesus so i want to just command you because you know i have been here is my fifth month and you are committed to the lord into his word i mean there's a high view of scripture here there is scripture is taught everywhere it's exciting to see that kind of commitment howard hendricks was a mentor for me and seminary and i you know i think i got my master's in theology but i minored in howard hendricks and i just took every class he offered and i remember one story where he was doing a training time for teaching in chicago and at this conference they were on break and it was lunch time so they went to a restaurant and the three of them sat down together they noticed some in the restaurant an elderly lady that she had kind of conference bag in the conference gear and so they saw her and said oh we've got one more seat do you want to sit with us well this lady was eighty three years old in the astor her story she came from michigan the upper peninsula in michigan all the way down to chicago for this conference and they said well what do you teach she said well i teach junior high and i've been teaching junior high for a long time just a little surge up upper peninsula of michigan i've got thirteen kids in my class and they say wait a second you're eighty three years old you've been doing this for decades and you came all the way down and it was on a greyhound bus eighty three years old and as you came all the down to chicago and he said yeah i  think maybe i can learn something here that i could become even a better teacher and help the kids get the word and as they found more about her story eighty four kids in her class had gone on to full time ministry in many different nations in many different parts of the world so what economy eighty three or so i think is so many in this search are so committed you know and there she is taking a greyhound bus that she might learn something to reads the junior high students better that's commitment that passion so what does it look like for us committing passion we had a great time on monday with the sharing your faith class i was so encouraged to see so many people coming out excited like let's get into this how do we do this a lot of times when it comes to sharing your faith that will test your commitment to jesus it's easy to kind of you know step back and say i don't want it what about tax season kind of easy when no one's looking right to to say well maybe i gave a little more over here maybe that it's easy to fudge fudge the numbers a little bit during tax season or you know cheat the employer just a little bit on the hours you show up and how hard you work and what you do i mean just a little things they're all tied into commitment to jesus while we're on the topic let me just throw this out there you know i'm getting know the culture of grace and i was in a conversation this week with some of staff and i just said you know it seems to me more than other churches where i've been when there's you know football games daylight savings this sort of thing a lot of people kind of disappear grace and you're they said they said oh you just wait till summer you haven't seen anything it is a really good flaky and summer time and i thought ok well i haven't been here for a summer yet and i mean don't need to go to seminary and say oh where's that bible verse that says during the summer really go backwards spiritually you know it's like ok we're not going to find that i don't want to get a bigger deal than it is really don't but the point is you know when you step back it's like ok my summer's coming up yes to vacations the cations are a great thing in family times a great great thing but it's like the summer time do i want to grow spiritually or do i want to go backwards spiritual in the summer ok then how can i grow you see it's not so much in the dotting the i's in the crossings of the t v it's more in the like i want to grow in my faith i want to get closer to jesus i would have a greater passion i would have more commitment to be more full of the lord i want to walk with him and when that's the heart will then all these other pieces suddenly tax temptations don't look the same it's like no one to ha integrity because how to walk with the lord so commitment it really is a centerpiece in this passage and how it's playing out so what was happening in the hearts of the people their motivation was off when you look closely so many of them thought as us come and we can finally have a national liberation jesus be that political leader jesus be that military leader so finally we don't have to put up with rome hosanna and they had this image of jesus and they missed the real mission in his first coming the real mission was not take political office or military rule or to overthrow rome it was the real mission that he was here for he wasn't setting a political kingdom he was setting up an  kingdom in so they had him boxed in and if you really go underneath the crowd and we don't know every heart but if you really go underneath the crowd there was a lot of me at the center me me me in so there's either jesus jesus jesus or me me me at the center of our hearts and commitment in so all these hosannas are piled on top of a lot of me me me that of the me so the shift is jesus jesus and then you see some of them right there when he's crucified some of them right there some of them right there at the tomb and there's a first to see in the resurrection so we really see a wide  range when we get to palm sunday and what's happening in hards here's the third trap and this is being impressive from a distance but disappointing close with a track i mean that's convicting for me just saying that when you think about that this would jesus says verse forty one we read as a story progresses as he approached jerusalem and he saw the city he wept over the city and he said if you even you had only known on this day what would bring you peace but now it is hidden from your eyes thanks for watching our program today and i want to let you know about our website activate life died or you can send us your prayer requests we are honored to pray for you we also have daily devotions and other resources you can sign up for and if you want to support us financially and can do that through the website now will get back to the teaching as we get into god's word together here's the second thing about jesus he can make rocks talk because he's that good and he's that worthy i like this verse nine hundred forty of this verse you know you can preach this verse  sign of royal respect palm branches have been honoring jesus you know it's interesting about palm branches in the book of revelation chapter seven john the apostle john give us a glimpse of have any says it's crowd bigger than anyone can count he said there's people from every nation and tribe just awesome celebration diversity love unity and he says as it's happening and they're shouting praise and you know what they're doing they're waving palm branches so palm sunday yes but even then we think about heaven in the palm branches that are being waved in so palm branches significant in the scriptures and again they're saying hosanna and they're crying out and he's worthy and they're shouting praise and what do the fair see say jesus shut this down we don't want the palm branches tell people to pick up the cloaks we don't want praise jesus you're not the messiah shut it down in jesus just says if they keep quiet the rocks will cry out you could see the fierce is due to rocks rocks talk what do you say rocks talk whenever jesus wants them talk that's when rock stock in so he is so good he is so worthy that out of the rocks the praise will come forth i mean who is like jesus there is no one like jesus we used to sing a song i don't want no rocks cryin for me i don't give him praise because if you don't well the rocks are going to cry out here's another one that's perspective folks that's reality here's the one about jesus jesus wants to increase his light and consistent peace in you his light and his consistent peace people would expect a war horse people would expect a vehicle with wheels rolling in jesus comes in on a donkey this donkey this symbol of humility and peace jesus said to jerusalem if you only knew what would really bring you peace as he wept over the city and so he comes in his donkey he's bringing peace this is the passover time on the calendar again three major festivals coming to jerusalem passover pentecost as well and the feast of booths in so it's passover time it was a great rescue and passover celebrated god rescued from slavery in egypt but now a jesus is ushering in in even greater rescue but a lot of people are missing it there's just a little reminder there that don't get so caught up in the past that you miss the moment of god's appearing and you miss what god wants to do in the present and i mean they were experts on the passover and they're experts on the past but they a lot of them were missing that week in what was happening what god was doing so don't steer to back it far back the past but continue to move forward we celebrated st patrick's day or i assume maybe a celebrated same patrick's day this week you know people like to wear  green i didn't wear green for part of the day i got pinched a few times i mean my kids were on that one but you know there's different things run down a mcdonald's get a shamrock shake it was all sorts of things people like to do it st patrick's day but when you really think about st patrick i mean st patrick lived in england he was taken into slavery in ireland in so there he was in slavery in ireland in he came to know jesus christ as the savior started to follow him and then he escaped the slavery and went back to england and you know what happened in his life as he continued to grow in his faith god said i want you to go back to those people who mistreated you and reach them with the love of jesus so can you imagine after being in slavery and so mistreated to go back to ireland and set up on the emerald isle in set up shop there and started to minister to the people in the country where he had been so mistreated because he had the love of christ overflowing in his life that's powerful when god gives you peace after people have wronged you when you can bless the ones who have hurt you when you can extend the gospel to the people who have brought injustice and he walks in that light and in that victory that's what jesus wants to do in our hearts another powerful reality as we start to wrap up and we think about passion week in palm sunday and you know in this passage  in this context really trying to figure out what is real is the praise real is jesus real is that prophecy really fulfilled are the spiritual leaders really spiritual what is real and who really is committed to jesus and the reality is the religious leaders are fake and they're corrupt and they're self centered in jesus calls them out many a times the reality is the crowd is messiah missing the peace that could be there's again all these themes tie into today then comes jesus the ultimate reality be all to me reality and then i think a prayer for you know myself for you when you go through this passage and go through passion week i think it's this prayer jesus our prayers that you had become more real to us than ever before you become more real to us and we would respond to that reality we would commit ourselves to you we would receive your grace and just see how real you are there's a story i read this week that was in the news it comes out of  st louis and bernie and carla they've been married for a while and you know carla had a wedding ring an anniversary band that cost four hundred thousand  so this is not the average wedding ring and anniversary band guys if you paid a fraction of that we know you still love your wife we still love you way real good so the bar mon way up there like russell wilson level or something i don't know but but you know there it is so she takes off her ring carla takes it off you know do a little cleaning and stuff that morning took it off put it on paper towel takes off the anniversary and put it on the paper towel over in the corner well there she goes and now she's gone and it's just sitting over there no problem bernie it's you know left or seven or so and he hears the garbage truck come in and you know how it is when the garbage trucks come in oh one more bag  it and he does a final sweep through you know gets things together takes out the garbage throws it in there in a little while later karla comes home he looks at the counter and there's no paper towel there's no wedding ring did i say four hundred thousand dollars already did i mention that sees starts to go to zach and it clicks in for him that he threw it all in the garbage in so calls up the waste company and says terrible mistake my wife's wedding ring is in the garbage strug we've got to do something in the company says will do whatever we can but this is going to be a difficult find in so they all go down together and ten sons of garvin it's nobody knows where is this ring and they all start to look for it in the manager his name is joe it's always good to have a friendly joe in your life right the manager well he says you know how many times the manager seen this one right garbage truck comes oh i need to go through the land oh empty everything oh i got to find it i lost my pa lost my ring so he says joe says ten zero to ten times just being realistic you never find it and joe going through the garbage sorting through it all found the wedding ring and the anniversary band and i just want to review his quote and this is what he says he says it was the best feeling in the world to find that rain and give it back it's the best feeling in the world into a wedding ring represents commitment represents commitment and i'm just thinking about our commitment to jesus and it might be the best feeling in the world to find that commitment to him again in give that back and say lord yes i want to follow you lord would you change me here's a couple of jesus statements jesus sees through every false reputation jesus is faithful to forgive every ounce of soon jesus wants us to trust him with our reputation whatever people think of us ok that's what it is just trust him with jesus wants to free us to be more real than ever before the inside in the outside match in jesus wants to build a depth in a solid character in all of us  is this be the opposite of a world that under estimates jesus and inflates reputations underestimates jesus and inflates reputations yet another way of saying is this this is but there's this lady in the news her name was col i think you pronounce that cow and ca oh and she's chinese and she suspected that her husband was not faithful to her in so she noticed that he was a little colder and when he was on the phone sometimes he would slip out of the room and talk so while he was sleeping one night and you talking a little bit in sleep she started to talk to him and while he was sleeping he shared the name of the lady who was having an affair with and the address and she wrote this down and you know he still denied anything was going on she went to the address in found him with the lady and the lover you know another way of saying integrity is live such a life that you don't have to worry about what you're say in your sleep right that's integrity in so it starts with a commitment to jesus in then the fruit just pours out and as we wrap up you know the heart of this is really make much of jesus live a life that makes much of jesus on good starting with palm sunday you know when we're in a crowd like this and there's a choir here and there's band in there songs we know and it's going to be you know make much of jesus on palm sunday now make much of jesus and good friday when life doesn't make sense if you're really alone in pain everywhere and you feel like the father so distant continue to make much of jesus and then make much of jesus on sunday morning make much to jesus because the tomb is empty because this is not dead religion make much of jesus by going and doing the very thing he asked us to do you go spread the good news to the entire world make much of jesus is the calling on our lives to be so close with him that we would bear so much fruit not just on palm sunday but on good friday in an easter for the resurrection thanks for watching today and i want to let you know about our website activate life that org there are so many free resources to help you growing your faith and if you've been blessed during the teaching please send us an e mail if you want to learn more about jesus we'd love to hear from you again our web site is active a life that org and we'll see you next week