Sunday, April 09, 2006
April 9, 2006 Sermon Notes-Palm Sunday-"Good Time Christians"
Note: posts are taken from loose outline notes of the pastor. Actual sermon delivery may have differed in some content. No video available of sermon. Sorry!
Text: Mark 11:7-11; Luke 19:39-41
What a wonderful, beautiful day! The sun was shining. The people were gathered and jubilant. The Passover was coming. Also, that amazing prophet and teacher Jesus is coming to Jerusalem! What an amazing person! He is supposed to have healed many and even raised the dead! All the stories of Christ and his teaching and miracles is bubbling through the town, as pilgrims from all around Israela nd the area come to celebrate the Passover. And there He came, on that colt, and look at how the people celebrate. Look at how they fawn over Him. Could He be the Messiah? Will He overthrow Rome?
Fast forward to Friday of that week. Where are the adulant crowds? Where is the sun? Where is the pararde, the laurels heaped on Him? Gone! All that was left was Him on the cross and lots of scorn. The thousands who yelled hosana were now yelling crucify, and His closest friends were hidden. One had betrayed Him, and another would deny Him three times. What ahappened to the throngs, the followers? These were good time Charlies, good time Christians. They just followed the fad. They just wanted something to do. The didn't study, they didn't understand that the kingdom could only be opened this way. They saw only that he Wasnt the guy on the White Horse, killing Romans.
How easy it was to follow Jesus that sunny day, and how easy for us to follow Him and praise Him in sunny times. However, where are we when the dark times come? Are we still there, serving and praising Him in spite of our pain and suffering, or are we running away, or are we heaping scorn?
We must not be good time Christians. It is easy to be a Christian when times are good or we want something. However, it is not so easy when others need us, when God needs us. Christianity is about more than just us reading the Book and being nice. It is a call to service and to action. It is a call to self-sacrifice and self-denial.
Christ was so upset during Palm Sunday he cried. Was he crying for Himself, the heartbreak that would happen when even for a time His Father rejected Him? No, he was crying for the throngs who were just blindly celebrating, not truly part of Him, but rather just the hangers on. He was crying for Us.
See, folks, Christ knows the loneliness we all have. He knows the pain and suffering of the body, the mind, the spirit. He went through it all. He went through all of it for us. And He did it knowing He would be rejected, knowing He would be spat upon. He did it for us. We, in turn, need to be willing to hang on that cross with Him, to stand and be counted.
We will face times when we need someone, when we feel alone. God is there, waiting. He understands. Often we say, God doesn't understand, but He does. He bore the Sin of past, present and future, all for the good of saving us. He understands rage, guilt, pain. He experienced it all. He wants to be what we were not for Him--there, ready and willing to take up our cause and love and advocated for us.
There will be dark times. Times like today, when we get all sorts of bad news about folks we care about. Christ got a lot of that. However, we need to know he is there, ready to take our burden, ready to minister to us. Ready to for us to be part of his personal family. We will no longer be th hangers on the outside, we will be part of that inner circle.
God tells us to give praise in all circumstances. He does not tell us to be happy all the time. He expects us to feel bad some of the time. He wants us to give that to Him, to trust him with it. He desires for us to be open with Him. He doesn't want the fake yesmen Christians, He wants real Christians, ones who may need some support, and occaisionally the kick in the pants. He wants us, and he wants to be apart of everything, good, bad, indifferent. He wants to be what we weren't for Him--support and there. Please, ask Him into your heart, or renew your commitment to Him. You need Him. He needed us, we weren't there. thankfully, He is there for us. Call to Him, lay your burdens on Him. Free yourself from that worry, that uncertainty.
Text: Mark 11:7-11; Luke 19:39-41
What a wonderful, beautiful day! The sun was shining. The people were gathered and jubilant. The Passover was coming. Also, that amazing prophet and teacher Jesus is coming to Jerusalem! What an amazing person! He is supposed to have healed many and even raised the dead! All the stories of Christ and his teaching and miracles is bubbling through the town, as pilgrims from all around Israela nd the area come to celebrate the Passover. And there He came, on that colt, and look at how the people celebrate. Look at how they fawn over Him. Could He be the Messiah? Will He overthrow Rome?
Fast forward to Friday of that week. Where are the adulant crowds? Where is the sun? Where is the pararde, the laurels heaped on Him? Gone! All that was left was Him on the cross and lots of scorn. The thousands who yelled hosana were now yelling crucify, and His closest friends were hidden. One had betrayed Him, and another would deny Him three times. What ahappened to the throngs, the followers? These were good time Charlies, good time Christians. They just followed the fad. They just wanted something to do. The didn't study, they didn't understand that the kingdom could only be opened this way. They saw only that he Wasnt the guy on the White Horse, killing Romans.
How easy it was to follow Jesus that sunny day, and how easy for us to follow Him and praise Him in sunny times. However, where are we when the dark times come? Are we still there, serving and praising Him in spite of our pain and suffering, or are we running away, or are we heaping scorn?
We must not be good time Christians. It is easy to be a Christian when times are good or we want something. However, it is not so easy when others need us, when God needs us. Christianity is about more than just us reading the Book and being nice. It is a call to service and to action. It is a call to self-sacrifice and self-denial.
Christ was so upset during Palm Sunday he cried. Was he crying for Himself, the heartbreak that would happen when even for a time His Father rejected Him? No, he was crying for the throngs who were just blindly celebrating, not truly part of Him, but rather just the hangers on. He was crying for Us.
See, folks, Christ knows the loneliness we all have. He knows the pain and suffering of the body, the mind, the spirit. He went through it all. He went through all of it for us. And He did it knowing He would be rejected, knowing He would be spat upon. He did it for us. We, in turn, need to be willing to hang on that cross with Him, to stand and be counted.
We will face times when we need someone, when we feel alone. God is there, waiting. He understands. Often we say, God doesn't understand, but He does. He bore the Sin of past, present and future, all for the good of saving us. He understands rage, guilt, pain. He experienced it all. He wants to be what we were not for Him--there, ready and willing to take up our cause and love and advocated for us.
There will be dark times. Times like today, when we get all sorts of bad news about folks we care about. Christ got a lot of that. However, we need to know he is there, ready to take our burden, ready to minister to us. Ready to for us to be part of his personal family. We will no longer be th hangers on the outside, we will be part of that inner circle.
God tells us to give praise in all circumstances. He does not tell us to be happy all the time. He expects us to feel bad some of the time. He wants us to give that to Him, to trust him with it. He desires for us to be open with Him. He doesn't want the fake yesmen Christians, He wants real Christians, ones who may need some support, and occaisionally the kick in the pants. He wants us, and he wants to be apart of everything, good, bad, indifferent. He wants to be what we weren't for Him--support and there. Please, ask Him into your heart, or renew your commitment to Him. You need Him. He needed us, we weren't there. thankfully, He is there for us. Call to Him, lay your burdens on Him. Free yourself from that worry, that uncertainty.
# posted by Mark : 2:56 PM
