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We commend him to you as the answer to your life’s deepest needs and questions. Please be sure to have a look at the "Who is Jesus" presentation. |
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Illustrations - His CharacterTHE CONSTANT CHRIST - “The legs of the lame are not equal” Prov. 26:7 There is a way that seems right to a man but the legs of his thinking are unequal
and in the circling eddy of his life he is swept to delusion and on death.In
refreshing contrast it is written of the Christ* He stands in the perfect balance of grace and truth; erect in all the fairness
of unsullied manhood; rooted in all the essential nature of His deity. As man
in all His walk, Zeal of Christ ‘Even Christ pleased not Himself.’ He was utterly consumed in the zeal of His Father’s house. As man He ever moved for God. As God He ever moved for man. Geoffrey T.Bull - “God Holds The Key. Hodder and Stoughton Limited
London 1959 A.W. Tozer says that people who are crucified with Christ have three distinct marks: 1. They are facing only one direction. HOLY SWEAT, Tim Hansel, 1987, Word Books Publisher, p. 187. CHRIST -- Charles Colson, Kingdoms in Conflict
First, then let’s admire Christ together. What makes Christ so admirable, and so different than all other persons – what sets him apart as unique and inimitable – matchless, peerless – is that he unites in himself so many qualities that in other people are contrary to each other. That’s why I put together the words "sovereign" and "merciful." We can imagine supreme sovereignty, and we can imagine tenderhearted mercy. But who do we look to combine in perfect proportion merciful sovereignty and sovereign mercy? We look to Jesus. No other religious or political contender even comes close. Look at three pointers in this text to his sovereignty. First, verse 37: "As he was drawing near – already on the way down the Mount of Olives – the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen." Jesus had made a name for himself as the worker of miracles, and they remembered them. He had healed leprosy with a touch; he had made the blind see and the deaf hear and the lame walk; he had commanded the unclean spirits and they obeyed him; he had stilled storms and walked on water and turned five loaves and two fish into a meal for thousands. So as he entered Jerusalem, they knew nothing could stop him. He could just speak and Pilate would perish; the Romans would be scattered. He was sovereign. Then look, secondly, at verse 38. The crowds cried out: "Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!" Jesus was a King, and not just any king, but the one sent and appointed by the Lord God. They knew how Isaiah had described him: Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this." (Isaiah 9:7) A universal, never-ending kingdom backed by the zeal of almighty God. Here was the King of the universe, who today rules over the nations and the galaxies, and for whom America and Iraq are a grain of sand and a vapor. Third, verse 40. When the Pharisees tell him to make the people stop blessing him as a king, he answers, "I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out (Luke 19:40). Why? Because he will be praised! The whole design of the universe is that Christ be praised. And therefore, if people won’t do it, he will see to it that rocks do it. In other words, he is sovereign. He will get what he means to get. If we refuse to praise, the rocks will get the joy. It is remarkable, therefore, that the tears of Jesus in verse 41 are so often used to deny his sovereignty. Someone will say, "Look, he weeps over Jerusalem because his design for them, his will for them, is not coming to pass. He would delight in their salvation. But they are resistant. They are going to reject him. They are going to hand him over to be crucified." And so his purpose for them has failed. But there is something not quite right about this objection to Jesus’ sovereignty. He can make praise come from rocks. And so he could do the same from rock-hard hearts in Jerusalem. What’s more, all this rejection and persecution and killing of Jesus is not the failure of Jesus’ plan, but the fulfillment of it. Listen to what he said in Luke 18:31-33 a short time before: And taking the twelve, he said to them, "See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written [planned!] about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished. 32 For he will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon. 33 And after flogging him, they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise." The betrayal, the mockery, the shame, the spit, the flogging, the murder – and so much more – was planned. In other words, the resistance, the rejection, the unbelief and hostility were not a surprise to Jesus. They were, in fact, part of the plan. He says so. This is probably why it says at the end of verse 42, "But now they are hidden from your eyes." Remember what Jesus said about his parables back in Luke 8:10: "To you [disciples] it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God, but for others they are in parables, so that ‘seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.’" God was handing them over to hardness. It was judgment. We have seen all this in Romans 9. The mercy of God is a sovereign mercy. "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion" (Romans 9:15). But here is the point I want you to see today: This sovereign Christ weeps over heard-hearted, perishing Jerusalem as they fulfilled his plan. It is unbiblical and wrong to make the tears of mercy a contradiction to the serenity of sovereignty. Jesus was serene in sorrow, and sorrowful in sovereignty. Jesus’ tears are the tears of sovereign mercy. And therefore his sovereign power is the more admirable and the more beautiful. It’s the harmony of things that seem in tension that makes him glorious: "Merciful and Mighty," as we sing. We admire power more when it is merciful power. And we admire mercy more when it is mighty mercy. And, as I said, my prayer is that as you see his mercy and admire his mercy, you will become like him in his mercy. There are at least three ways that Jesus is merciful, which we can draw out of this context. And I pray that I will become like him in all of these. I pray that you will too. PALM SUNDAY - TEARS OF SOVEREIGN MERCY In the Old Testament we have preparation for Christ; in the Gospels, the presentation of Christ; and in the Acts through Revelation, the appropriation of Christ. -- Warren Wiersbe, Be Free, p. 85. 2. THE SILENCE OF THE LAMB. When Jesus faced the soldiers of the High Priest, Archaeologists have identified where Jesus was born because they have discovered
the special fields of the shepherds. "The Lamb who was killed is worthy to receive power, wealth, wisdom and strength, honour, glory, and praise! To Him who sits upon the throne and to the Lamb, be praise, honour, glory and might for ever and ever." Rev. 5:6?13 But the price of being the Saviour of the world was high. He would be despised
and rejected of men, cast outside the city wall, crucified and buried. And like
a Lamb before his shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth. "What can wash away my sin? The silence of the Lamb who was taking away the sins of the world! "The Silence Of The Lamb." By Gordon Moyes KING OF KINGS Nikita Khrushchev once boasted that he would exhibit the last Soviet Christian
on television by 1965. Khrushchev has since gone to give account of himself
to the Judge of all mankind, and his deadline for the extinction of Christianity
in Russia has also passed. Throughout history, so-called big men and little
men have strutted across the stages of life defying God. See: Psa 2:2
"There is something so pure and frank and noble about Him that to doubt His sincerity would be like doubting the brightness of the sun." -- Jon Johnston, Courage: You Can Be Strong in the Face of Fear, p.94. To the artist He is the One Altogether Lovely. See: Matt 16:16; John 1:29 Standards of success By current standards of success, Jesus might be considered a failure. Did he have political power? No. He was a political failure. All levels of government first rejected him. Then they conspired to kill him. Did he have lots of friends? No. His friends often hurt him, eventually abandoned him, and one of them betrayed him to death. Did he have money and possessions? No. No house, no "wheels", no
world headquarters, no Christian amusement park. Despite his apparent failure by these standards, Jesus Christ has changed the
lives of millions of men and women across the centuries. How could he, in light
of his failures? . Christ -- was never in a hurry, never impressed by numbers, never a slave to the clock. -- J.B. Phillips My husband Glenn, a weekend woodworker, cut off the tips of his thumb and index
finger while using a table saw. Our doctor bandaged his wounds and sent him
to a hand surgeon, whom Glenn discovered was a Christian. More of his Son. Watchman Nee wrote, "God will answer all our questions in one way and one way only. Namely, by showing us more of his Son." Mark Hatfield, "Integrity Under Pressure," Leadership, Spring 1988,
p. 132. See: Psa 27:8; Phil 3:7-10 His authority If I am able to establish the claim that the authority of Christ is based on
truth, even then how it affects any of us will depend upon one's answer. We
may keep His sayings and so build upon the rock, or we may refuse them and erect
the superstructure of character upon sand. In this lies the awful majesty of
human life. by G. Campbell Morgan - From Westminster Pulpit, volume 1, chapter 6 The music of the love of God THE AUTHORITY OF JESUS by G. Campbell Morgan "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased (Matt 3:17). How was it that, even in the common tasks of an ordinary life, Jesus drew the praise of heaven? At the core of His being, He only did those things which pleased the Father. In everything, He stayed true, heartbeat to heartbeat, with the Father's desires. Jesus lived for God alone; God was enough for Him. Thus, even in its simplicity and moment-to-moment faithfulness, Christ's life was an unending fragrance, a perfect offering of incomparable love to God. Part of "THE BELOVED" By Francis Frangipane ( Go to "Article's" for full text ) Copyright (c) 2003 Frangipane Ministries, Inc. All rights reserved.
Thou art My beloved Son, in Thee I am well-pleased' (Luke 3:21-22). The deep, unfathomable perfection of God, the incomprehensible ethos of the
divine nature, knows only pleasure in Jesus. Copyright (c) 2003 Frangipane Ministries, Inc. All rights reserved.
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