• Palm /
Passion Sunday
with Luke 19 and 23
with Luke 19 and 23
www.FirstChurchBville.com
@FirstUMCBville @kerrfunk
A video of the worship service was posted on
Facebook 4/14/19 https://www.facebook.com/FUMCWV/videos/661465794304498/
•
Whichever gospel we read, we get the story of Jesus, healing, teaching, leading
disciples, and heading towards Jerusalem. Always a step or two ahead.
Our
district has a lead team to fulfill the duties of district, to encourage and
propel ministry, to keep ever before us the mission to make disciples of Jesus.
We
discuss discipleship, we pray for one another,
and we intentionally look for “glory sightings.”
and we intentionally look for “glory sightings.”
•
I shared a glory sighting this past week around some conversations I had:
What
did Jesus do? What does it mean that Jesus saved us?
Why did he have to die? What changed after his coming?
Why did he have to die? What changed after his coming?
•
How might you address those questions?
How about If God really loves us why doesn’t he just forgive us?
Why sacrifice his son for people who reject God?
How about If God really loves us why doesn’t he just forgive us?
Why sacrifice his son for people who reject God?
Consider
Old Testament sacrifice: life for life. It’s easy to reduce the idea of
sacrifice to an economic transaction (cost of this sin or that) but to reduce
to transaction is not to understand or honor sacrifice. I submit to you:
One,
sacrifice never was about appeasing God but about people having some
kind of "skin in the game". Sure, God could just forgive, but we
humans are fickle and prideful and if something is just given to us,
we don't really value it as much as something we worked for. Animal
sacrifice has the symbolic meaning of life and value, plus the rules
always were that good (flawless, firstborn, prize-winning) animals
were used (again, we're prideful... not just any ol' animal will do as a
symbolic 'me'.)
So
one, sacrifice is more about humankind than about God and
Two:
Imagine Jesus, Son of God, saying to God the Father, "I would like to get
some skin in the game. People maintain this chasm between [God and humankind]
and I would like to bridge it. I would like to demonstrate how much we love
them, even if it means my own death. Maybe the sacrifice of a blameless life
will be valuable enough that they'll respond."
What
changed is where we had no hope of real reconciliation, we now have real
hope of reconciliation. Where there wasn't a way before, now there is a way.
•
Jesus lived life we could not live, died death we should have died, to gain for
us a life we could not gain. Our response: honor. Go with him to the cross this
week, so that come next week you may be filled with light and life.
•
Hymn 295 In the Cross of Christ I Glory
Luke 19:28-40
(CEB)
28-29 As Jesus was going towards Jerusalem, he came to Bethphage and Bethany on the Mount of Olives, where he gave two disciples a task: 30 He said, “Go into the village over there. When you enter it, you will find tied up there a colt that no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. 31 If anyone asks, ‘Why are you untying it?’ just say, ‘Its master needs it.’”
32 Those who had been sent found it exactly as he had said.
28-29 As Jesus was going towards Jerusalem, he came to Bethphage and Bethany on the Mount of Olives, where he gave two disciples a task: 30 He said, “Go into the village over there. When you enter it, you will find tied up there a colt that no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. 31 If anyone asks, ‘Why are you untying it?’ just say, ‘Its master needs it.’”
32 Those who had been sent found it exactly as he had said.
33 As they were
untying the colt, its owners said to them,
“Why are you untying the colt?”
“Why are you untying the colt?”
34 They replied,
“Its master needs it.” 35 They brought it to Jesus, threw
their clothes on the colt, and lifted Jesus onto it.
36 As Jesus rode along, they spread their clothes on the road.
36 As Jesus rode along, they spread their clothes on the road.
37 As Jesus
approached the road leading down from the Mount of Olives, the whole throng of
his disciples began rejoicing. They praised God with a loud voice because of
all the mighty things they had seen. 38 They said,
“Blessings
on the king who comes in the name of the Lord.
Peace in heaven and glory in the highest heavens.”
Peace in heaven and glory in the highest heavens.”
39 Some of the
Pharisees from the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, scold your disciples! Tell
them to stop!”
40 But Jesus
answered, “I tell you, if they were silent, the stones would shout.” ò
Luke 23:33,
44-49 (CEB)
33 When they arrived at the place called The Skull, they crucified him, along with the criminals, one on his right and the other on his left. …
33 When they arrived at the place called The Skull, they crucified him, along with the criminals, one on his right and the other on his left. …
44 It was now about
noon, and darkness covered the whole earth until about three o’clock, 45 while
the sun stopped shining. Then the curtain in the sanctuary tore down the
middle. 46 Crying out in a loud voice, Jesus
said, “Father, into your hands I entrust my life.” After he said
this, he breathed for the last time.
47 When the
centurion saw what happened, he praised God, saying, “It’s really true: this
man was righteous.” 48 All the crowds who had come
together to see this event returned to their homes beating their chests after
seeing what had happened. 49 And everyone who knew him,
including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance
observing these things. ò
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