Luke 19:28-48
How Does God Come to You?

I. Thanksgiving Begins Christmas Season
1. If there were Puritans now we’d have a day of fasting because of Covid-19 then a Thanksgiving.
2. This plague has not turned out to be nearly as bad as we at first feared.
3. The fatality rate in declined to 0.6% by September and will probably go lower with the new medicines.
5. The Puritans were opposed to Christmas because they were trying to purify themselves of traditions.
7. They think of Jesus as a baby. They’ll pray to “baby Jesus.” They think of God coming to us as a baby.
II. Peacefully (19:28-40)
A. The Triumphal Entry
1. Here is the end of Jesus’ long pilgrimage, like Mao’s “Long March” in 1934 and ’35.
2. As soon as He has taught the parable of the Minas in Jericho, He goes to Jerusalem by foot.
3. Coming to the Mount of Olives He gets a view of Jerusalem below. He gets ready to enter.
4. He sends two disciples ahead to get a colt of a donkey. It’s never been ridden yet.
5. Jesus supernaturally knew there would be a colt belonging to the people who would let them use it.
6. Riding a donkey was a sign of royalty coming peacefully, not ferociously on a warhorse.
7. The people spread out their cloaks on the road so it was as if He were coming in on carpet.
8. They rejoiced and praised God. They are happy because they want Him to become the King.
9. They didn’t understand what He came to do because they didn’t understand what they needed.
B. What Makes For Peace?
1. Is it money? If you have enough money, you’ll be fulfilled. Does wealth make for peace?
2. Or is it politics, having the right president? Or the relationship, having a sweet marriage?
3. Jerusalem, literally means, “the city of peace.” But they don’t know what makes for peace.
4. Some are convinced if they have enough in the bank, that will be what makes for peace.
5. Here, the people are wrong. They think it’s just politics, power, success.
6. The hail Jesus as the King. “Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” Does it sound familiar?
7. In Luke 2:14, the angels announce, “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace …”.
8. The angels declared it first, here echoed by the crowd, not now about baby Jesus.
9. This is the fulfillment of the angelic announcement. God comes peace-makingly.
10. What makes for non-peace? Our main, first problem is that we are sinners. God is at our sin.
11. We need, first, peace with God or else He will come to us, like the king in the parable of the minas.
12. The religious leaders don’t know. They were just the keepers of the status quo.
13. Jesus says, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.”
14. God comes to us: as the King, glorious, bringing peace.
III. Sovereignly (19:41-44)
2. He wept over Jerusalem. Because they don’t know what makes for peace, they’ll kill Jesus.
3. He sorrows for the people. God commands them to bless the One who comes in the name of the Lord.
4. “But now the things that make for peace are hidden from your eyes.” God hid them.
5. In chapter 18:34 the disciples didn’t understand Jesus’ prediction because it was “hidden” from them.
6. God is hiding it from them because God is sovereign over those who do and do not accept Jesus.
7. He weeps over the consequences of them not accepting Him because He takes no pleasure in their death.
8. Most of these people in this city, and their children, will be destroyed because of they rejected Jesus.
9. Jesus says, “because you did not know the time of your visitation,” the time God came to them.
10. Recognize when God has visited you. He comes to us as the sovereign, the One in control.
IV. Purifyingly (19:45-46)
1. He comes into the temple and sees in the outer area is an open air market.
2. Profiteering – charging more because you control the market – is theft and immoral.
3. Instead of being a place where God is worshipped, it had become a place where profits are made.
4. God will come to His church and purify it of those who use it for their profit or ego.
V. Impressively (19:47-48)
1. Jesus is impressing people with His teaching, His authority; defying this world.
2. Jesus moves in and takes over, as if He owns the place. The leaders were conspiring to kill Him.
3. Jesus got away with it because He impressed the people, in the after-glow of His triumphal entry.
4. “All the people hung on His words.” If He hides His impressiveness, then we esteem Him not.
5. We slink away from His house. Or we might be too bored with His Word to care, not rapt by Him.
6. He will come to you as someone overwhelmingly impressive, whose every word captures your attention.
VI. Invitation: He comes peacefully, making peace between you, the infuriating sinner and a holy God. He’s the one who makes peace – satisfaction – for you, not money. So you cannot but help announce – lest the rocks do it for you – “Blessed is my King. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”. That’s how He comes.