KILLING ISAAC

 KILLING ISAAC

Sunday, April 18, 2021

Years ago, two of America’s great poets, Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard, wrote a hit song: “This is Where Dreams Come to Die”. Many of you may feel this song was written for you and about you. 

All of us have things we want God to do in our lives. But often we see those things die. These things are Isaacs to us. Isaac was the son of promise given to Abraham and Sarah. An “Isaac” is a promise God gives. Often, we will see that promise die and we wonder if it will ever happen. At that moment we have the opportunity to release it to God and trust Him for its fulfillment. 

TEXT Galatians 4:28 (NKJV) Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise.

In the book of Genesis is the story of Abraham sacrificing Isaac on Mount Moriah, the future site of Solomon’s Temple.

Let’s read it together… 

Genesis 22:1–14 (NKJV) Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 

He responded immediately. This demonstrates self-control: instant obedience to the initial promptings of the Holy Spirit. 

² Then He said, “Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.”

Now this is a test. God is asking Abraham to give Him not only his son, but his promise, his future, his blessing. Warren Wiersbe writes, “Our faith is not really tested until God asks us to bear what seems unbearable, do what seems unreasonable, and expect what seems impossible.”

Offer him as a burnt offering. A burnt offering was not only killed, it was totally consumed.

Hebrews 12:29 (NKJV) For our God is a consuming fire.

Only ashes remained. Yet God is able to give something beautiful in the midst of the ash heap. 

Psalm 113:7 (NKJV): He raises the poor out of the dust, and lifts the needy out of the ash heap,

Isaiah 61:3 (NKJV) To console those who mourn in Zion, To give them beauty for ashes, The oil of joy for mourning, The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; That they may be called trees of righteousness, The planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.”

³ So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son; and he split the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. ⁴ Then on the third day Abraham lifted his eyes and saw the place afar off. ⁵ And Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; the lad and I will go yonder and worship, and we will come back to you.”

God asks for the Isaacs in our life to be offered up completely as an act of worship.

Romans 12:1 (NASB) Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.

In the midst of sacrifice there is also faith. We will come back…

Hebrews 11:17–19 (NKJV) By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, 18 of whom it was said, “In Isaac your seed shall be called,” 19 concluding that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense.

⁶ So Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife, and the two of them went together. ⁷ But Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, “My father!” 

And he said, “Here I am, my son.” Then he said, “Look, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” 

⁸ And Abraham said, “My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering.” So the two of them went together.

⁹ Then they came to the place of which God had told him. And Abraham built an altar there and placed the wood in order; and he bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, upon the wood. ¹⁰ And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.

No question, no hesitation, only obedience by Abraham and Isaac. 

¹¹ But the Angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” 

So, he said, “Here I am.” 

¹² And He said, “Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.” 

¹³ Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. So, Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son. ¹⁴ And Abraham called the name of the place, The-Lord-Will-Provide; as it is said to this day, “In the Mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”

Has God asked you to put your Isaac on the altar of sacrificial worship? Or have you seen your Isaac die?

I remember the day Isaac died at my house. In early January 2001, I was at home recuperating from my first heart attack. Reading the Bible through as a part of my quiet time this particular day, a section of the reading was Genesis 22, the passage we just read.

Some years before this, the Lord spoke to me that I would become the pastor of a particular church. I kept it to myself for many years. This word was ultimately confirmed by two elders from that congregation at different times and different places, purely at their behest; I had never shared with them the vision until they asked. 

Over the next several months, events occurred that made the fulfillment of that vision an impossibility. I took a pastorate at another church and was serving there. I was angry over what had transpired. I felt I had been the victim of lies and half-truths. Blame gripped me like a vise. My mantra became “If only…” or “What might have been…” Bitterness settled on me like a dark cloud. It was choking the very life out of me. My dream would never come true.

Only Alba knew what was cooking in my heart. I am ashamed to confess I concocted a plan to move against the pastor in a spiritual coup, take the church and become the pastor. I thought I would have the backing to get it done. We went out of town for a few days, and I had breakfast with a dear friend to share my plan with him. Sitting at a Holiday Inn over biscuits and gravy, I let my bitterness pour all over him, thinking he would support me and my desire. Instead, he gently rebuked me, saying, “You cannot do this; God will not honor it. If you do it, the day will come when someone will do it to you!” My ideas were squashed; I knew he was right. I was grateful he had the courage to stand against me.

This was the context of that fateful January morning when God met me. Having a lot of time to meditate and meet with God, I realized what was growing in my heart. God spoke to me, “That church is your Isaac. You assumed all your future, your ministry, your worth is tied to it. You need to lay it on the altar and kill it!” Sitting with my head in my hands, weeping, I remember visually seeing the church on the altar and my hand killing it, putting the dream to death. Knowing it would never happen.

As the ashes of my dream settled around me, I felt drained, but strangely, at peace. Not knowing what God would do, I was more content in what He was doing! 

But God was not done with me or my Isaac. I saw that God had been in everything that happened to me because He had something much different in mind and much greater! I can honestly say, what God worked was so much better that what I thought was best. As the old saying goes, “God always gives His best to those who leave the choice with Him!”

APPLICATIONS

1.    Be obedient.

2.    Be quiet.

3.    Be working. 

4.    Be watching. 

MINISTRY TIME

We cannot read this story without seeing the parallels to the sacrifice of Jesus. God, the father, gave Jesus, His Son, to die upon a wooden cross, shedding His blood so that we could be forgiven. But after three days, He rose again, and is now in heaven praying for us!

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE YEAR OF ISAAC

 THE YEAR OF ISAAC

At the beginning of this year, I was reading in Genesis and read again the story of Isaac. I believe that the Lord whispered to me that this was going to be the “Year of Isaac”. Isaac means ‘laughter’. I took that to mean that joy would return to us this year. Isaac received many blessings in his life; this will be a year of blessings. Isaac was a sacrifice, so God is calling us to a life of laying down our lives for Him this year. Isaac redug the wells his father had dug; we will resurrect old wells that have run dry. 

As we go on after the Easter season, I want to revisit this whisper to see what God has in store for us this year. 

TEXT Galatians 4:28 (NKJV) Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise.

PRAYER

Isaac’s story...

God appears to Abraham

Abraham: Father of many nations

Stars of the sky; sands of the sea

Sarai barren; no heir

Son from your body

Hagar and Ishmael; not the one

Isaac was the Child of Promise

God appears again to Abraham…

Genesis 17:15–19 (NKJV) Then God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. 16 And I will bless her and also give you a son by her; then I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of peoples shall be from her.”

17 Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said in his heart, “Shall a child be born to a man who is one hundred years old? And shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?” 18 And Abraham said to God, “Oh, that Ishmael might live before You!”

19 Then God said: “No, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his descendants after him.

Genesis 17:21 (NKJV) But My covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this set time next year.”

The Lord and two angels pay a visit to Abraham. 

Genesis 18:9–14 (NKJV) Then they said to him, “Where is Sarah your wife?” So he said, “Here, in the tent.” 10 And He said, “I will certainly return to you according to the time of life, and behold, Sarah your wife shall have a son.” (Sarah was listening in the tent door which was behind him.) 11 Now Abraham and Sarah were old, well advanced in age; and Sarah had passed the age of childbearing. 12 Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, “After I have grown old, shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?” 13 And the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, saying, ‘Shall I surely bear a child, since I am old?’ 14 Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.”

Isaac had a Miraculous Conception

Genesis 21:1–6 (NKJV) And the Lord visited Sarah as He had said, and the Lord did for Sarah as He had spoken. 2 For Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him. 3 And Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him—whom Sarah bore to him—Isaac.  4 Then Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. 5 Now Abraham was one hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. 6 And Sarah said, “God has made me laugh, and all who hear will laugh with me.”

APPLICATIONS

What are some things that will happen in the “Year of Isaac”?

1. God will give us promises.

Some may be old promises that spring up again. Some may be brand new. 

2. We will try to make it happen with our ideas and our effort.

These efforts will fail; our dreams will die. 

3. God will bring to life those things that are dead. 

How? Faith!

Romans 4:17–24 (NKJV) as it is written, “I have made you a father of many nations”) in the presence of Him whom he believed—God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did; 18 who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, “So shall your descendants be.” 19 And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb. 20 He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, 21 and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform. 22 And therefore “it was accounted to him for righteousness.” 23 Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, 24 but also for us.

4. God will fulfill His promises with a miracle conception.

Faith, not flesh; life out of death

Notice: Isaac was conceived by natural means, empowered by God!

When we surrender our will and our desires and our abilities and our strength, God takes over and empowers our efforts so that what used to be futile is now fertile!

MINISTRY TIME

EASTER 2021

 EASTER 2021

I want to begin today by making a simple declaration. I am not going to try to prove it to you; I am not going to argue the point; I am not leaving it up for debate. It is a declaration based on the veracity of the Bible, God’s holy Word. Here it is. Are you ready?

 

Jesus is alive! He is risen from the dead. He is ascended into heaven; He is seated at the right hand of the Father; and He is praying for us right now!

 

Now here is a second declaration that is just as valid. 

 

Jesus is alive and because He lives, I live also!

 

John 14:19 (NKJV) A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live also.

 

Romans 8:11 (NKJV) But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

 

Jesus conquered the devil. 

 

Hebrews 2:14–15 (NKJV) Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.

 

Jesus conquered death, hell, and the grave. 

 

1 Corinthians 15:54–57 (NKJV): 54c Death is swallowed up in victory.” 55 “O  Death, where is your sting? O Hades (hell, grave), where is your victory?”

56 The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Now here is the main point of today’s talk: If Jesus can conquer the devil, death, hell, and the grave, then I can conquer _____! 

 

John 1:12 (KJV) But as many as received him, to them He gave  power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:

 

Say that with me: He gave them power…!

 

The word power means right and authority. We have authority over whatever is defeating us, bothering us, battling us. We have power!

 

2 Corinthians 13:4 (NKJV) For though He was crucified in weakness, yet He lives by the power of God. For we also are weak in Him, but we shall live with Him by the power of God toward you.

 

1 Corinthians 2:4–5 (NKJV) And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

 

How do we appropriate this power? Look again at John 1:12 and add verse 13.

 

John 1:12–13 (NKJV) But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: 13 who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

 

You pass through three areas  to get in the power building. 

 

1.    The receiving dock: As many as received him…

a.    Take it in

b.    Take possession

 

2.    The trust department: To those who believe in His name…

a.    Trust in; cling to; rely upon

b.    Have faith

 

John 3:16 (NKJV) For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

 

3.    The delivery room: Who were born of God…

 

John 3:3 (NKJV) Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

 

2 Corinthians 5:17 (NKJV) Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

 

So are you ready to receive, believe, be born again? Are you ready to walk in the power of Jesus?

 

Galatians 2:20 (NKJV) I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

 

Remember… If Jesus can conquer the devil, death, hell, and the grave, then I can conquer _____! 

 

Romans 8:37 (NKJV) Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.

 

MINISTRY TIME

 

GOOD FRIDAY 2021

 GOOD FRIDAY 2021

Let me tell you a story tonight…

 

Acts 8:26–39 (The Message) God’s angel spoke to Philip: “At noon today I want you to walk over to that desolate road that goes from Jerusalem down to Gaza.” ²⁷ He got up and went. He met an Ethiopian eunuch coming down the road. The eunuch had been on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and was returning to Ethiopia, where he was minister in charge of all the finances of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians. ²⁸ He was riding in a chariot and reading the prophet Isaiah. 

 

²⁹ The Spirit told Philip, “Climb into the chariot.” ³⁰ Running up alongside, Philip heard the eunuch reading Isaiah and asked, “Do you understand what you’re reading?” 

 

³¹ He answered, “How can I without some help?” and invited Philip into the chariot with him. ³² The passage he was reading was this: 

 

As a sheep led to slaughter, and quiet as a lamb being sheared, He was silent, saying nothing. ³³ He was mocked and put down, never got a fair trial. But who now can count his kin since he’s been taken from the earth? 

 

³⁴ The eunuch said, “Tell me, who is the prophet talking about: himself or some other?” ³⁵ Philip grabbed his chance. Using this passage as his text, he preached Jesus to him.

 

³⁶ As they continued down the road, they came to a stream of water. The eunuch said, “Here’s water. Why can’t I be baptized?” ³⁷ Phillip said, “If you believe, you can.” He said, “I believe that Jesus is the Son of God!” ³⁸ He ordered the chariot to stop. They both went down to the water, and Philip baptized him on the spot. 

 

³⁹ When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of God suddenly took Philip off, and that was the last the eunuch saw of him. But he didn’t mind. He had what he’d come for and went on down the road as happy as he could be.

 

The passage he was reading from was Isaiah 53. Let’s read from it together. Isaiah describes what Jesus did on the Cross.

 

Isaiah 53:1–12 (NKJV) Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? ² For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness; and when we see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him. ³ He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. 

 

⁴ Surely, He has borne our griefs (also pains) and carried our sorrows (also sicknesses); yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. ⁵ But He was wounded for our transgressions (individual sins), He was bruised for our iniquities (inborn sin); the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. ⁶ All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, everyone, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. 

 

⁷ He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, Yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth. ⁸ He was taken from prison and from judgment, and who will declare His generation? For He was cut off from the land of the living; For the transgressions of My people, He was stricken. ⁹ And they made His grave with the wicked— but with the rich at His death, because He had done no violence, nor was any deceit in His mouth. 

 

¹⁰ Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, And the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand. ¹¹ He shall see the labor of His soul and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, For He shall bear their iniquities. ¹² Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong, because He poured out His soul unto death, And He was numbered with the transgressors, and He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

 

John 1:29 (NKJV) The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!

 

WATCH THE LAMB

 

Walking on the road to Jerusalem that day,
The time had come to sacrifice again,
My two small sons, they walked beside me on the road,
The reason that they came was to watch the lamb.

 

"Daddy, daddy, what will see there,
There's so much that we don't understand",
So I told them of Moses and Father Abraham,
Then I said, "dear children watch the lamb".

"There will be so many in Jerusalem today,
We must be sure the lamb doesn't run away",
And I told them of Moses and Father Abraham,
Then I said, "dear children watch the lamb".

 

When we reached the city,
I knew something must be wrong,
There were no joyful worshipers, 

No joyful worship songs,

I stood there with my children in the midst of angry men,
Then I heard the crowd cry out, "Crucify Him".

 

We tried to leave the city, but we could not get away,
Forced to play in this drama a part I did not wish to play,
"Why upon this day were men condemned to die?
Why were we standing here, 

Where soon they would pass by?".

 

I looked and said, "even now they come",
The first one cried for mercy, the people gave him none,
The second one was violent, He was arrogant and loud,
I still can hear his angry voice screaming at the crowd,

Then someone said, "There's Jesus",
I could scarce believe my eyes,
A man so badly beaten, He barely looked alive,
Blood poured from His body, 

From the thorns upon His brow,
Running down the cross, falling to the ground.

 

I watched Him as He struggled,
I watched Him as He fell,
The cross came down upon His back, the crowd began to yell,

In that moment I felt such agony,
In that moment I felt such loss,
Till a Roman soldier grabbed my arm
and screamed, "You, carry His cross".

 

At first, I tried to resist him,
Then his hand reached for his sword,
So I knelt and took the cross from the Lord,

I placed it on my shoulder and started down the street,
The blood that he'd been shedding

Was running down my cheek.

 

They led us to Golgotha,
They drove nails deep in His feet and hands,
Yet upon the cross I heard Him pray
"Father, forgive them".

Oh, never have I seen such love in any other eyes,
"Into thy hands I commit my spirit"
He prayed and then He died,

 

I stood for what seemed like years,
I'd lost all sense of time

Until I felt two tiny hands holding tight to mine,
My children stood there weeping, I heard the oldest say,
"Father, please forgive us, the lamb ran away".

 

"Daddy, daddy, what have we seen here?
There's so much that we don't understand",
So I took them in my arms, 

And we turned and faced the cross,
Then I said, "Dear children, watch the Lamb"

 

John 19:16–18 (NKJV) Then he delivered Him to them to be crucified. Then they took Jesus and led Him away. ¹⁷ And He, bearing His cross, went out to a place called the Place of a Skull, which is called in Hebrew, Golgotha, ¹⁸ where they crucified Him, and two others with Him, one on either side, and Jesus in the center.

 

Via Dolorosa - Alba

 

COMMUNION

MAKING JESUS CRY

 MAKING JESUS CRY

Have you ever walked in on your spouse or kids and found them crying? You ask, “What’s wrong” and they say, “Nothing!” Now we know something or someone is making them cry. 

 

When we look at the story of Palm Sunday and the entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem, there were many emotions: joy, celebration, resentment, indignation, hope. But there was one other emotion dominating the scene: Jesus is crying. 

 

Luke 19:41 (NKJV) Now as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it,

 

Today, we will ask “Why” and see what God wants to speak to us individually and collectively. As W. H. Griffith Thomas, the co-founder of Dallas Theological Seminary, has said, “Let us sit at Christ’s feet until we learn the secret of His tears, and beholding the sins and sorrows of city and countryside, weep over them too.”

 

PRAYER

 

Luke is the only Gospel author who records Jesus crying at the Triumphal Entry. 

 

John records Jesus crying at the tomb of Lazarus. 

 

John 11:33–39 (NKJV) Therefore, when Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her weeping, He groaned in the spirit and was troubled. ³⁴ And He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to Him, “Lord, come and see.” ³⁵ Jesus wept. 

 

³⁶ Then the Jews said, “See how He loved him!” ³⁷ And some of them said, “Could not this Man, who opened the eyes of the blind, also have kept this man from dying?” ³⁸ Then Jesus, again groaning in Himself, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. ³⁹ Jesus said, “Take away the stone.”

 

Jesus was weeping over the shallowness of their lives, the unbelief that filled their hearts!

 

Hebrews tells us Jesus cried in the Garden of Gethsemane. 

 

Hebrews 5:7 (NKJV) who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear. 

 

Jesus was weeping over the torture that was to come and the pain of separation from the Father. The thought of becoming sin terrified Him. 

 

But we often don’t think about Jesus weeping at the Triumphal Entry. We talk about the celebration and the joy and the cheering. But we don’t consider Jesus crying. Luke makes it the point of the day. 

 

Luke 19:28–44 (NKJV) When He had said this, He went on ahead, going to Jerusalem. ²⁹ And it came to pass, when He drew near to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mountain called Olivet, that He sent two of His disciples saying, ³⁰ “Go into the village opposite you, where as you enter you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever sat. Loose it and bring it here. ³¹ And if anyone asks you, ‘Why are you loosing it?’ thus you shall say to him, ‘Because the Lord has need of it.’ ”

 

³² So those who were sent went their way and found it just as He had said to them. ³³ But as they were loosing the colt, the owners of it said to them, “Why are you loosing the colt?” ³⁴ And they said, “The Lord has need of him.” ³⁵ Then they brought him to Jesus. And they threw their own clothes on the colt, and they set Jesus on him. ³⁶ And as He went, many spread their clothes on the road.

 

³⁷ Then, as He was now drawing near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works they had seen, 

 

The first reaction: Seeing Jesus only as a miracle worker, a need meeter. 

 

³⁸ saying: “ ‘Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord!’ Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”

 

The second reaction: Seeing Jesus as a future hope to bring freedom from oppression. 

 

³⁹ And some of the Pharisees called to Him from the crowd, “Teacher, rebuke Your disciples.”

 

The third reaction: Seeing Jesus as a threat to your power. 

 

⁴⁰ But He answered and said to them, “I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out.”

 

⁴¹ Now as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it,

 

The real issue: Not realizing God had visited them to bring real life and real peace. 

 

⁴² saying, “If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. ⁴³ For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, ⁴⁴ and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another because you did not know the time of your visitation.”

 

Jesus had come for them but they didn’t see it!

 

All of these things made Jesus weep. People wanted His acts but didn’t want Him. They didn’t realize they had sealed their own judgment. Some 40 years later the Romans would destroy the Temple and level the city. 

 

These things make Jesus cry today; they still break His heart. Focusing on gifts instead of the giver; rejecting His Lordship; not responding when He passes by.

 

He had tried to warn them. 

 

Luke 13:34–35 (NKJV) “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were not willing! ³⁵ See! Your house is left to you desolate; and assuredly, I say to you, you shall not see Me until the time comes when you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’ ”

 

As I was reading these passages,  this thought filled my heart: Do I make Jesus cry? Do I only worship Him because of what He can do for me? Am I just looking for a political victory, a social victory, a cultural victory? Am I doubting and indignant, demanding the worship stop? Do I recognize that my time of visitation is here?

 

We all need to ask ourselves this question: Do I make Jesus cry?

 

Jesus is visiting us today. He is passing by, wanting to meet us and transform us. Will we see Him? Will we meet Him?

 

SONG: I Hear the Lord Passing By

 

MINISTRY TIME