The Lord … Needs?
Sunday, March 20th, 2005
Palm Sunday
Jerusalem Baptist Church
Matthew 21:1-11
“The Lord … Needs?”
If you think about it, it seems to be a contradiction in terms. “The Lord.” – means someone who is in control, one who has the power, who is ultimately able to do just about anything he wishes.
To say that someone like that ‘needs’ anything … would seem to be saying that it is a limited Lordship, and as such, no Lordship at all, if we’re going to get right down to the heart of the matter.
As Christians, we believe that Jesus Christ was God incarnate. We believe that God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit form the trinity. They are each both individual and one and the same. That is a core belief of the Christian faith.
And now, we come to the toughest and most glorious part of the story, beginning today and continuing through this coming Saturday we will be observing Passion Week. For the last 5 weeks we’ve been moving through the Season of Lent, which as we know, leads us to the cross, to Christ’s death and burial. Next Sunday we will celebrate Easter, we know that is coming, but right now, we remember Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem.
Palm leaves waving, people shouting, donkeys walking, colts too, and Jesus riding both … check it out, Matthew seems to have become so caught up in telling the story that he has Jesus riding both a donkey AND a colt (verse 7). It doesn’t matter so much how he came into the city, it matters more what he came to do and what happened over the course of the next week.
Before the first verse of chapter 21 is done, we have Jesus sending a couple of his disciples off to find the donkey and the colt.
Sending.
Jesus did that with the disciples, and he continues to do it with us. Just as God sent Jesus, Jesus in turn sends us.
To do what, you might ask? Well, that depends on what gifts and qualities God has given you to begin with, as well as what God has called you to do. Get used to the idea that we each have been called to do something for God, by God, through God.
I heard an interview with Henry Blackaby this week. He wrote “Experiencing God”. If you’ve not read it, let me know, and we can read it together. Something he said in the interview stuck with me. His point was that people can sometimes take their talents, those abilities with which they were either born or developed on their own, or through training and encouragement from others, and call them spiritual gifts.
He said natural talents are not the same thing as spiritual gifts. Being called to do something can SOMETIMES involve your using your natural talents and abilities, but it will always involve doing something that you could not otherwise accomplish without God’s help. Let me say that again: Answering God’s call to do something will always involve doing something that you could not otherwise do without God’s help. In other words, being called by God by definition means being at a loss on your own.
Over the last two weeks we’ve been made aware of that being highlighted in Jesus’ ministry as well. With the man born blind, and with the death of Lazarus, Jesus’ healing of the one and resurrecting of the other were both examples of God’s power being made known – of God’s Kingdom breaking into the world. Both miracles went against the natural (broken, but natural) process of life as we know it.
‘But that was Jesus,’ you might say. ‘We’re not Jesus.’
You’re right. We’re not, in the full sense of who Jesus was. But we are his disciples, his ambassadors, his representatives. On one level, we ARE Jesus. When we take Jesus as Lord of our lives we begin to act, speak, think, and feel like him. Sometimes in infinitesimal increments, and often times it’s a matter of two steps forward, one step back. Some days we fail miserably at the task of becoming more and more like him. Some days we do better.
And here’s the sometimes scary part: We will find that, some days, we are the only Jesus others will ever see.
In the most recent issue of the Ministry Messenger, a quarterly newsletter published by the BGAV, John Upton, the Executive Director, says the following:
“One of my favorite passages in the Bible is Isaiah 40 where God says to His people, “Lift up your voice. Lift is up, be not afraid. Say to the people, ‘Here is your God.’” What a challenge by God. Of all people, he asks us, as inadequate as we are, to be bearers of His message of Good News. Our ignorance is monumental. We are often wrong-headed and wrong-hearted, and we can be more than a little bit foolish. Our lives aren’t worthy of the words we’re asked to carry.
But here is the thing to remember. Whose words, after all, are they? And if the Word bids us to be instruments of it, how could our inadequacy possibly matter? Our only part is to open our mouths, our hearts, our arms and our lives and let the words pass through us like breath through a pipe organ. Ready or not, we just give ourselves to it, and our lives are a good enough voice.”
So what does the Lord need, exactly? What is it that he’s asking of us?
Is he asking us only to worship him? To lift the palm branches and wave them and proclaim ‘blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord?’ Or is he asking us to lay down our cloaks, our robes, our best, so that he can walk over them towards his death? Or is he asking us to run an errand, to find the donkey, or the colt, to speak to the owner and tell him that the LORD needs them …
The truth is that he is asking for it all. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German Pastor and theologian who was killed in WWII for fighting the Nazi regime, wrote “when Jesus calls, he bids us come and die.”
The Lord needs … company. God craves communion. That it is the almighty creator of the universe coming to us, his creation, is a mystery, and yet, that is what God has shown us through Christ to be God’s own nature.
He’s asking us to walk alongside, to follow, to imitate, however you want to phrase it, you’ve heard me say it before, and you’ll keep hearing me say it -- to BE his presence in a world that is hurting in unimaginable ways.
God has met and surpassed our needs. God did that through Christ. That is what we will be celebrating next Sunday. For now, the question becomes, how will you respond to the Lord’s need?
Let’s pray.
Sunday, March 20th, 2005
Palm Sunday
Jerusalem Baptist Church
Matthew 21:1-11
1When they had come near Jerusalem and had reached Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, 2saying to them, ‘Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to me. 3If anyone says anything to you, just say this, “The Lord needs them.” And he will send them immediately.’ 4This took place to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet, saying, 5‘Tell the daughter of Zion, Look, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’ 6The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them; 7they brought the donkey and the colt, and put their cloaks on them, and he sat on them. 8A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9The crowds that went ahead of him and that followed were shouting, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!’ 10When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil, asking, ‘Who is this?’ 11The crowds were saying, ‘This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.’
“The Lord … Needs?”
If you think about it, it seems to be a contradiction in terms. “The Lord.” – means someone who is in control, one who has the power, who is ultimately able to do just about anything he wishes.
To say that someone like that ‘needs’ anything … would seem to be saying that it is a limited Lordship, and as such, no Lordship at all, if we’re going to get right down to the heart of the matter.
As Christians, we believe that Jesus Christ was God incarnate. We believe that God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit form the trinity. They are each both individual and one and the same. That is a core belief of the Christian faith.
And now, we come to the toughest and most glorious part of the story, beginning today and continuing through this coming Saturday we will be observing Passion Week. For the last 5 weeks we’ve been moving through the Season of Lent, which as we know, leads us to the cross, to Christ’s death and burial. Next Sunday we will celebrate Easter, we know that is coming, but right now, we remember Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem.
Palm leaves waving, people shouting, donkeys walking, colts too, and Jesus riding both … check it out, Matthew seems to have become so caught up in telling the story that he has Jesus riding both a donkey AND a colt (verse 7). It doesn’t matter so much how he came into the city, it matters more what he came to do and what happened over the course of the next week.
Before the first verse of chapter 21 is done, we have Jesus sending a couple of his disciples off to find the donkey and the colt.
Sending.
Jesus did that with the disciples, and he continues to do it with us. Just as God sent Jesus, Jesus in turn sends us.
To do what, you might ask? Well, that depends on what gifts and qualities God has given you to begin with, as well as what God has called you to do. Get used to the idea that we each have been called to do something for God, by God, through God.
I heard an interview with Henry Blackaby this week. He wrote “Experiencing God”. If you’ve not read it, let me know, and we can read it together. Something he said in the interview stuck with me. His point was that people can sometimes take their talents, those abilities with which they were either born or developed on their own, or through training and encouragement from others, and call them spiritual gifts.
He said natural talents are not the same thing as spiritual gifts. Being called to do something can SOMETIMES involve your using your natural talents and abilities, but it will always involve doing something that you could not otherwise accomplish without God’s help. Let me say that again: Answering God’s call to do something will always involve doing something that you could not otherwise do without God’s help. In other words, being called by God by definition means being at a loss on your own.
Over the last two weeks we’ve been made aware of that being highlighted in Jesus’ ministry as well. With the man born blind, and with the death of Lazarus, Jesus’ healing of the one and resurrecting of the other were both examples of God’s power being made known – of God’s Kingdom breaking into the world. Both miracles went against the natural (broken, but natural) process of life as we know it.
‘But that was Jesus,’ you might say. ‘We’re not Jesus.’
You’re right. We’re not, in the full sense of who Jesus was. But we are his disciples, his ambassadors, his representatives. On one level, we ARE Jesus. When we take Jesus as Lord of our lives we begin to act, speak, think, and feel like him. Sometimes in infinitesimal increments, and often times it’s a matter of two steps forward, one step back. Some days we fail miserably at the task of becoming more and more like him. Some days we do better.
And here’s the sometimes scary part: We will find that, some days, we are the only Jesus others will ever see.
In the most recent issue of the Ministry Messenger, a quarterly newsletter published by the BGAV, John Upton, the Executive Director, says the following:
“One of my favorite passages in the Bible is Isaiah 40 where God says to His people, “Lift up your voice. Lift is up, be not afraid. Say to the people, ‘Here is your God.’” What a challenge by God. Of all people, he asks us, as inadequate as we are, to be bearers of His message of Good News. Our ignorance is monumental. We are often wrong-headed and wrong-hearted, and we can be more than a little bit foolish. Our lives aren’t worthy of the words we’re asked to carry.
But here is the thing to remember. Whose words, after all, are they? And if the Word bids us to be instruments of it, how could our inadequacy possibly matter? Our only part is to open our mouths, our hearts, our arms and our lives and let the words pass through us like breath through a pipe organ. Ready or not, we just give ourselves to it, and our lives are a good enough voice.”
So what does the Lord need, exactly? What is it that he’s asking of us?
Is he asking us only to worship him? To lift the palm branches and wave them and proclaim ‘blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord?’ Or is he asking us to lay down our cloaks, our robes, our best, so that he can walk over them towards his death? Or is he asking us to run an errand, to find the donkey, or the colt, to speak to the owner and tell him that the LORD needs them …
The truth is that he is asking for it all. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German Pastor and theologian who was killed in WWII for fighting the Nazi regime, wrote “when Jesus calls, he bids us come and die.”
The Lord needs … company. God craves communion. That it is the almighty creator of the universe coming to us, his creation, is a mystery, and yet, that is what God has shown us through Christ to be God’s own nature.
He’s asking us to walk alongside, to follow, to imitate, however you want to phrase it, you’ve heard me say it before, and you’ll keep hearing me say it -- to BE his presence in a world that is hurting in unimaginable ways.
God has met and surpassed our needs. God did that through Christ. That is what we will be celebrating next Sunday. For now, the question becomes, how will you respond to the Lord’s need?
Let’s pray.
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