Dennis Tuuri

If you wish to follow along in the reading of the text from the outline today, it’s really not an outline. It’s just the structure of the text as I’ll be dealing with it. We’re going to look at the so-called triumphal entry into Jerusalem which we do every year at Palm Sunday or most every year. And I think this is the first time I’ve actually used the Luke text and I think I’ve done all three other gospels.

This is recorded in all four gospels. And I don’t think I’ve done Luke before. And so in the providence of God, here we are. And you’ll see as I structured it and as we read it that in Luke, this word drawing near is important. It’s used 43 times in the New Testament, 18 times in Luke. And in this text, it is the pericope or section boundaries that distinguish the sections that are in front of us. And so the whole movement of this text is this drawing near, the movement into the city and then into the temple itself.

And so the very movement itself sets us up for a consideration of who we are in Jesus. As we’ve always stressed, every Palm Sunday when we leave this place, when we go to our places of work tomorrow, we draw near. We process into the city in much the same way that Jesus did. In the providence of God, it’s a wonderful thing today to have the young people again sort of beginning our worship and to have a discussion at my house this afternoon on trying to think of how to reach the city Portland and also the city of Oregon City where God has placed us and what that looks like in terms of the direction and future of RCC.

And it’s as I was watching the little children come in, you know, that’s who we are. Part of what will help us as we identify with what Jesus does here is that we’re little children of course and we follow obediently Jesus into the city and sometimes you know we have—we should certainly not think that we’re more mature than we are but we should recognize that God uses the faith of children to change the places where God has placed us.

So let’s stand and we’ll read from the Gospel account of Luke chapter 19 beginning at verse 28. And as I said, if you have the handout, it would probably be useful for you to look at that and follow along. If not, try to hear how we’re sectioning this up.

When he had said this, he went on ahead going up to Jerusalem. And it came to pass when he drew near to Bethphage at the mountain called Olivet that he sent two of his disciples, saying, “Go into the village opposite you, where you enter, you will find a colt tied on which no one has ever sat. Loose it and bring it here. And if anyone asks you, why are you loosing it? Thus you shall say to him, because the Lord has need of it.”

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

And as he went, many spread their clothes on the road. 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, saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest.” And some of the Pharisees called to him from the crowd, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” But he answered and said to them, “I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out.”

Now, as he drew near, he saw the city and wept over it, 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. For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you, and close you in on every side, 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.”

Then he went into the temple and began to drive out those who bought and sold in it, saying to them, “It is written, my house is a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves.” And he was teaching daily in the temple. But the chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people sought to destroy him and were unable to do anything, for all the people were very attentive to hear him.

Let’s pray. Lord God, help us to be as these disciples, attentive, Lord God, to your word, to the voice of Jesus Christ speaking through this word. Bless us, Lord God, that we would hear the importance, the significance of what this text informs us of. Bless us, Father, to the end that our lives would be transformed, that we would hear diligently and attentively to the end, that when we process into our various callings and places tomorrow, we would see this in terms of the spirit empowered and filled procession of Jesus into the city of Jerusalem. Bless us to that end with your Holy Spirit. In Jesus name we ask it. Amen.

Please be seated. Children, I don’t really have a—what I wanted to do was I wanted to find a coloring picture of a cart going off into the city. I don’t have that. So you can just use the front of the order of worship if your parents okay those younger ones who want to color these palm fronds. But that’s kind of the—you know, you think of this cart going into the city. That’s really what we want to stress today is our communion with the Lord Jesus Christ.

As we look at this story, as we look at this historical event here, we want to do so seeing ourselves in the picture, right? What are the implications for us? What does it tell us about the gospel, about Jesus? But what does it do in terms of instructing us? And this text, in Luke’s text specifically, the actions of the disciples are really sort of placed forward, at least in the opening little description. And that’s the longest section of each of these four sections that we looked at.

So, you know, we’re right there in the scene from the opening salvo as it were, and hopefully we can see this. Jesus is drawing near. And as I said in Luke’s gospel, this is a big theme. Most of the—well, not the majority, but 18 out of 43 occurrences in the Greek New Testament of this term translated to draw near are used in Luke’s gospel. Far more than you would expect to find if they were evenly distributed. It’s a big deal.

And here as we move into the events of our savior’s crucifixion or resurrection, this is how this narrative is structured. A series of drawing nears. So they’re drawing near to these two villages a couple of miles away from Jerusalem on the other side of the Mount of Olives. They’re drawing near to these cities and they’re drawing near to the Mount of Olives. And then they’re at the top and they’re drawing near the descent now to go back down the Mount of Olives into the city. They’re drawing near to the descent now in the second section and then he—as they’re drawing near to the city itself other things are described and then finally he’s actually in the city and more than that he’s in the temple. So there’s this movement of drawing near.

Now we have to remember—and actually the opening sequence tells us this—but the gospel and I’ll get back to that in just a minute but the gospel of Luke—everything has prepared us for this. And when we draw near to something, it means that we’re moving from one location to another. So dramatically, as you see progression and movement of the drawing near of Jesus, while the text is drawing us into the future, it’s also pointing us back to where he’s drawing near from. So all the activity of Jesus in Luke’s gospel is seen as producing and being wrapped up in his now moving into the city that for the passion week itself or his work there.

So you know as we contemplate the cross this week at the conclusion and the culmination of Lent and Good Friday the cross—you know—has this aspect of looking to the past but also looking to the future. And this drawing near motif in Luke’s gospel helps us to do that. What we see here is the culmination of the ministry of Jesus Christ, right? He’s called a king here. Well I think that’s the first time in Luke’s gospel that occurs.

So, we’re moving ahead and the people are praising him for the wonderful works he’s already accomplished. So, there’s a looking to the past. This has prepared Jesus, the three years of ministry for this final culminating event. And so, the past, the actions in the past are linked to what will happen in the future. And as we think about affecting the cultural center of Oregon, Portland, the city, or if we think about affecting Oregon City, you see that’s a culmination of a lot of other work that has gone on.

Jesus’s procession into the city is preceded by a lot of ministry works that has prepared him for that moment. And so, as we look at this, the whole chronological emphasis of Luke helps us to understand you know, our past, in our present activities and then how that moves us into the future with Jesus processing into the city. So what we’re going to do is just look at these four sections note some specific emphases for each section and we’ll discuss them as we move along.

Okay. So DN1—that’s drawing near one—and that’s the opening section here and he now is going up to Jerusalem and it came to pass that he’s drawing near to Bethphage at the mountain called Olivet that he sent two of his disciples. All right. So, he’s processing toward the city. It’s a parade. It’s a parade route as we looked at this morning at the little children coming in. And Jesus is moving ahead.

So, the goal is the transformation of the center of the culture and the center of the world. Jerusalem. I almost put as the title of the sermon, “drawing near to the navel.” Why? Well, in Ezekiel, the word navel is used of Jerusalem. The navel is the center of your body. May not think of it that way, but in terms of the Hebrew language, the navel was the center of everything. The navel of the world is found in Jerusalem and specifically in the temple.

The world is transformed and affected by the center. And so in Oregon, the cultural center, the political center is Portland. It’s the navel of Oregon. Okay? And so Jesus is drawing near to the city and the city is what God has developed as time has progressed as the promulgators of culture. Why do we want urbanization, a Christian view of urbanization? Well, we want a culture that’s distinctively Christian. We want a political base that’s distinctively Christian. We want arts and media and you know promulgators of public opinion that comes from a distinctively Christian emphasis and aspect. Well, all of those things flow out of the navel of Oregon which is Portland.

So long term if you’re going to affect cultural change, media change, political change, you cannot ignore Portland. It’s the heart of the whole thing. It’s the beating heart of the state. Okay? And this is what Jerusalem was to the whole world really. So this idea of moving into the city as the culmination act of what Jesus accomplishes is important for us to see.

Now immediately however the text draws our attention to another navel, another center—that’s the Mount of Olives—and that’s told us to here in the text. So he’s headed into the city and we think of the city as the center of the world and there’s this sense in which it always is the dispenser of culture to a region and there’s something important about the temple. But here the great spiritual center really isn’t Jerusalem. That’s what he’s going to transform, destroy, whatever it is. But Jesus’s center, we can say, is Mount Olive, the Mount of Olives.

The Mount of Olives is where Jesus spends all week. Okay? So, Holy Week, you know, the we’re we’re talking about history here. The Christian faith is based on history. And historically, Jesus went back to the Mount of Olives every night. He’d go into the city during the day. He’d go back to the Mount of Olives tonight. He stayed there and the text before it gets us into Jerusalem emphasizes his relationship to the Mount of Olives.

Now, that’s important for us because the Mount of Olives is a symbolic representation of the garden which will eventually impact the city. The Mount of Olives is the garden. It’s the place not only where Jesus stays, but I think a careful analysis of the gospel text tell us that the Mount of Olives is where Jesus is arrested. It’s where he’s crucified. Everything sort of happens on the Mount of Olives. So, you know, don’t—if you don’t understand this correctly, the insignificance of the Mount of Olives, and our attention is drawn to it in these first couple of verses, you’re going to kind of miss it.

The Mount of Olives. What are olives? Well, in the scriptures, you know, olive oil is used in the anointing of the priests. The doves bring back an olive branch to Noah. Olives and olive oil and the oil that comes from olives specifically is connected up with the work of the Holy Spirit. So Jesus is, you know—we could say completely immersed in the setting of the Holy Spirit on the Mount of Olives and that spirit empowerment of Christ himself is what creates his entry into the city or what empowers it rather for ministry.

So the point is you know if we’re talking about going into Oregon City tomorrow or going into Portland and long time wanting to, you know, long-term having an effect on the cultural center of our state. Very significantly, our union with Jesus Christ that enables us and calls us to that vision and purpose also calls us to a life of consecration and spirit empowerment. Without the spirit empowerment for us, the illustration of the text is telling us there’s no transformation of the city. It is pointless to process into the city if our lives are not ones that are spirit empowered with the knowledge of his word and obedience to the Holy Spirit, seeking direction and guidance from the Holy Spirit that powers everything else we could say.

So the narrative of Palm Sunday isn’t just about we’re going into the center of worship. No, it’s actually, you know, he’s out here on the Mount of Olives and that context of the spirit and filled environment which is our worship today. That’s what precedes his movement into the city. And so in a very direct application to us the spirit empowerment of worship empowers us to move and transform cultures and cities.

You see, trying to reach a city for the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, this is a culmination work and it’s a work that is driven by worship but isn’t directly related to worship. Right? So, his actions in the city are empowered by that spirit environment of worship, but they’re not restricted to that. So the point is this is how Jesus goes about his work in Jerusalem and it’s connected to us and that’s immediately he sends two of his disciples out.

So the emphasis in Luke’s gospel is not on the multitudes, it’s on the disciples and we’ll see this later that as they sing forth these praises to Jesus hosanna save. It’s his disciples that are being talked about. So the Luke text specifically involves us quite early on.

Then we have this long narrative. It’s strange. You think it’s a little odd. It’s always struck me as odd that why would we have all these verses with this detailed story where he sends his apostles out, his disciples, his sent ones out, and to find a colt, and he tells them exactly where they’ll find it and what the owner will say to them and what they’re supposed to say back to him.

Now, the center of this, if we look at the way the text is actually structured, the center of it focuses on verse 32, “those who were sent.” So, The center has this idea of us being sent ones from the Lord Jesus Christ. So it immediately brings us—they processed into a place to get a colt for him. So he sent them. They went their way and they found it just as he had said to them. For the success of the disciples, Jesus is telling us that everything will happen just as he has predicted it.

So the sovereignty of Jesus Christ, his omniscience and omnipotence is emphasized in the opening narrative of this procession into eventually into Jerusalem. So at the heart of the opening little section is a narrative that brings us more than this. But the focal point of the narrative is that as disciples who believe it’s our job to be sent ones from the Lord Jesus Christ and to accomplish things for the master and that’s what they refer to him as here, the master. We’re to be servants. And so this is at the core of an understanding as we appropriate this text for ourselves and we proceed into our workplaces tomorrow, wherever we go tomorrow, the task that we’re called to do. We’re the sent ones in the same way.

And it’s we’re assured that the Lord Jesus Christ is sovereign, that things will develop exactly as he knows they will develop. Now, most of the time we don’t know what’s going to happen, right? But he’s telling us here that undergirding our actions is a reliance, a comfort, an assurance that in spite of the difficulty of the task—we’re going to go take somebody’s donkey. He’s not going to arrest you. Well, it’s a difficult task to go get this donkey without buying it just on the basis that Jesus needs it. That’s a hard task. It’s a hard task to transform Oregon City. It’s a hard task to transform the greater cultural center of Oregon, Portland.

Hard task. And Jesus wants us to be focused on the center of this—that assures us that as we go about obeying him, he will bring blessing. So I think this opening sequence is quite significant for giving us confidence and assurance as we process into our duties as sent ones for him this coming week and eventually transforming Oregon City, Portland etc. We have to have the assurance of Christ’s omniscience and sovereignty.

Now that omniscience and sovereignty means that we are subjects of the king and Jesus Christ’s kingship is big part of this opening situation as well. What’s the deal with the colt? What’s the deal with garments being placed on the colt? So, there’s a lot of significance drawn to this. And we know from Matthew’s account, now Luke doesn’t talk about this, but we know from Matthew’s account that actually Jesus had his people go get a couple of colts, right? A colt and then or an older horse, a donkey, and then one that had never been ridden on. And then it actually in the other accounts, it describes it as being set on both of them. And there are these clothes that are spread out as well.

What’s what’s going on? Well, if we generally understand the significance of imagery here, what are people going to think as Jesus comes on a donkey? Well, first of all, they’re going to say, we should say, we’ve never seen that before in the text. We’ve never seen Jesus coming on a donkey. He’s walked everywhere. So, something is different now about this concluding week. What’s different?

Well, you know, Solomon came into his reign in Jerusalem riding on David’s donkey. It’s a picture of the sort of king that Israel would have riding in on donkeys. And very specifically, there are, you know, more than that general reference. There’s some very specific references as well to this in Genesis 49. Why don’t you turn to Genesis 49? We’ll take a look at this.

Genesis, you know, 49 is about the prediction of the future of the different tribes of Israel. And beginning in verse 8, we have the kingly tribe of Judah described. So, Genesis 49, beginning at verse 8.

So, the other brothers are described in other texts. Now, we’ve got—we just had Simeon and Levi described. Now, we’re having Judah. “Judah, you are the one whom your brother shall praise. Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies. Your father’s children shall bow down before you. Judah is a lion’s whelp. From this prey, my son, you have gone up. He bows down. He has he lies down as a lion. And as a lion, who shall rouse him? The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh comes.”

So the whole picture here, the prediction is that the lion of Judah, right, we can make that allusion of Jesus. But Judah is a kingly tribe and kings come forth from Judah and eventually the king of kings will come forth from Judah. That’s what’s being described here. And so we know that ultimately that’s Jesus Christ. And this lion, you know, he devours prey and then he just lies around and relaxes and nobody can rouse him up because he’s so successful. He defeats all the enemies.

The imagery of Judah is a conquering king who defeats all the enemies of God. And now look at the very next verse that’s described here in verse 11. “Binding his donkey to the vine and his donkey his colt to the choice vine. He washed his garments in wine, his clothes in the blood of grapes, his eyes are darker than wine, and his teeth whiter than milk.”

Okay, here we actually have a reference where a donkey and its colt are being described just as Matthew’s gospel describes here. The emphasis is on the colt who’s never been ridden. We’ll talk about that in just a minute. But if we remember the story, what’s going on? Jesus is being described as what? The lion of Judah. Very obviously this connection back—you know—to these to this colt and one and the and the colt of the donkey and the donkey itself. This is what’s being described here now in Judah in the description in Genesis 49.

You know, it’s kind of a powerful image of a king who has conquered all of his enemies and he’s got both these donkeys tied up to the grape vine so he can really fulfill himself there by eating all the grapes and drinking all the wine he wants. So, it’s a leisurely sort of imagery that’s involved here. But the same imagery is then appropriated in in later in the scriptures to talk about how in, you know, that Jesus is becoming humble and riding on a donkey.

So, you know, we have in this imagery in the opening scene of the procession of Jesus Christ as he moves toward the city, we have very explicit statements that he is sovereign. He is omniscient. He’s omnipotent. Not only that, but he is king now. So, the culmination of all his work is he’s now declared in Luke’s gospel to be king, but he’s not a conquering king. And in opposition to his humility. He is a king who will conquer through humility. He’s going to conquer through the cross, right? And so this is what’s described here as well. He’s conquering through humility.

It’s it’s a big deal in the text here in Luke’s gospel that this donkey, this colt has never been ridden on before. Why? Well, in various places in scripture, in Numbers and in Deuteronomy, it’s a red heifer that has never been used before, for that is the ultimate sacrifice that God says will accomplish the cleansing of his people. Animals that were, you know, had all their force left, were not used by men at all. This is the imagery in Numbers in Deuteronomy. And that’s the imagery here.

Jesus’s humility is linked to the idea of this donkey who has never been written before picturing even in the midst of these strong assertions of the sovereignty of Jesus Christ, picturing his coming sacrifice on the cross. So the humility of Jesus Christ and yet his victorious reign, his kingship is all described for us in this verse.

One other reference to kings here. The people put their garments down before him, right? That’s what’s going to happen as he rides in on this colt. They put garments down. They put garments on the donkey and set him on it. And then it says they strew his garments on the road as well. So the palm branches aren’t mentioned. They’re mentioned in Matthew’s gospel. We’ve talked about the fact that when you walk on palm branches, you’re walking in the sky. You’re Luke Skywalker. You’re—it’s a way to visually represent that Jesus is, you know, God man. He comes in the clouds. He’s above it all. So, he walks on palms.

But here, what’s going on with the walking on garments? Well, again, there’s an Old Testament reference when Jehu, one of the judges of God is anointed as king. He’s told by God, “You’re going to be king.” And then he tells the people, “I’m going to be king.” They then in 2 Kings chapter 9 throw garments down before him on the ground for him to walk on. Now there’s more to that imagery than we necessarily have to get into, but again the point is as we’re reading this account in Luke’s gospel of the garments on the ground. All we need to know is that this is one who is the greater Jehu. Again, he’s a king and Jehu of course brought God’s vengeance upon Ahab and his 70 sons.

So, it’s the same kind of imagery as from the description of Judah in Genesis 49. This opening scene assures his disciples that we’re sent ones, we’re going to go places, too. We’re in the story. And as we go about transforming cultures and changing them, we go in the power of the spirit and filled power that Jesus Christ moves in. And we’re assured in union with Christ that he is sovereign. He is omniscient.

Our task though daunting and though impossible will be accomplished because we serve the lion of Judah. We serve the greater Jehu. He’ll bring destruction in ultimately to Jerusalem in AD 70 and specifically there is that reference then to him being the lion of Judah and destroying his enemies. But the point is that Jesus Christ is sovereign. So all of this extended imagery at the beginning of the triumphal entry passage in Luke is to an end. It’s to the end that we understand that as disciples, as sent ones, as those that process into our cities and seek transformation, we can do so with the omniscient, omnipotent, active reigning king, the Lord Jesus Christ, at our backs.

We’re in union with him, and he’ll bring either bless or curse. We don’t know. We don’t know what’s going to happen to Portland, right? We don’t know if we’re going to transform it or if God’s going to destroy it with—with a bomb. We have no idea. And in a way, we don’t have to know that. In a very big way, we don’t have to know that. What we have to know is we go in the power of the Holy Spirit. And one way or the other, God’s will be done in the context of the cities that we draw near to.

So, so the first drawing near section has those emphases to it. Kingship, sovereignty, our participation in procession as well.

Second one, drawing near verse 37. “Then, as he was now drawing near the descent of the mount of olives…” and you see doubled reference—first he’s going up to the mount of olives now they’re drawing near to the other side, the descent down into the city. So what’s the high place? In a way the high place is this mount of olives it’s worship is going on there spirit of empowerment is going there to prepare us for descent into the city.

“…the whole multitude of the disciples again began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works they had seen, saying, ‘Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest.’ And then we have opposition. Some of the Pharisees called to him from the crowd, ‘Teacher, rebuke your disciples.’”

So here we have a another little text it’s marked off by drawing near and the center of this text is this acclamation of praise to Jesus Christ but it’s praise for what he has already accomplished so again drawing near looks to the past as it moves toward the future. To draw near to a city is premised upon accomplishment of work prior to getting there.

In Jesus’s case. Right? So you could say, well, what impact have we had on Oregon City? Do we have the street cred to go transform Portland? Well, do we? I don’t know. In some ways, we do. And in some ways we don’t.

I had a great meeting at an Oregon City pastor’s meeting on this last Wednesday, first of the month again. And it was a lot of fun. First, Jesse was there with the trailer for Miracle of the Widow and Tom Herz’s going to show that as a trailer tonight at OCAC when they show Expelled. Should be a good size crowd there and they’ll see you get a movie preview like you do in the theater. You know, that was fun. It was fun to see that the dreams and aspirations of the people that established Reformation Covenant Church are coming to pass. Young people are taking up cultural means to try to impact the broader community of the Lord Jesus Christ. That’s cool. It’s cool to see that the aspirations we had for citywide churches is being accomplished slowly but surely in Oregon City.

We didn’t do that. It was like that going and untying the donkey thing and the owner says this and we just did what God said to do. And somehow here we are in Oregon City and one of the things we talked about at the meeting on Wednesday was the Chamber of Commerce run by a Christian woman wants to know how we—the churches in Oregon City—would like churches to be listed in the directory. That’s cool. The business community is asking for our help in listing in their directory churches and that produces a discussion in the context of the pastors. Well, how do we do this? How do we exclude Mormons for instance? My suggestion would be—let’s say the trinitarian churches. If eventually, what we’re going to do, I think, is just buy an ad to talk specifically about the church in Oregon City comprised of congregations that are faithful, trinitarian, that have signed a doctrinal statement, etc.

So, it’s a good thing. It’s cool. It’s wonderful. More and more unity in the context of the body of Christ is starting to happen in Oregon City. So, there’s a lot of neat things that have happened here.

Now, you know, in when you have a big Broadway play, a lot of times you’ll have it out in the off-Broadway First you’ll try it out in the small theater and then when you get it really down well then you’ll show it in down in the great white way right. So in a way if we’re going to be involved in the next year or two in terms of Portland then what we do in Oregon City is very significant for that—it’s these past actions that give us street cred so to speak—that and both plus preparation for doing effective work in Portland so it’s important to think this way. That’s the way it happened here.

They’re praising Jesus as they go into the city to transform it, but they’re praising him for his past works. That’s what the text tells us here. So, the center is disciples singing forth the praising and blessing of king.

Now, verse 38, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord. And then this wonderful little phrase, ‘Peace in heaven and glory in the highest.’”

Does that sound familiar? Peace in heaven and glory in the highest. Well, it should sound familiar. That’s Luke 2:14 kind of reversed. Remember at the angels’ birth of Jesus. Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace. Here we have—you know—kind of the same thing. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest. So glory in the highest on earth peace. Now we have peace in heaven glory in the highest. Okay. It’s it’s very beautiful. The imagery is beautiful and what it shows us is that Palm Sunday liturgically has this link to Advent. We prepared for the coming of Jesus Christ, his birth, his incarnation by remembering those kind of songs, right? And now we prepare for Easter by having the same kind of songs sung at toward the end of Luke’s gospel. There’s a, you know, it marks it off.

But notice the change as well. The disciples, earthly people are now singing about peace in heaven. And at the beginning of Luke’s gospel, angelic heavenly beings were singing peace on earth. So, you know, we could talk a lot about this, the imagery of it. It’s beautiful. But at least it means this linkage—again—that Jesus Christ is affecting by his incarnation, by his ministry, by his death and resurrection. The linkage again of heaven and earth. What Jesus is accomplishing has significance not just on earth, but in heaven as well.

And we can then pray very expectantly that his will be done on earth as it is in heaven because even the heavenly realities have changed as a result of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Those bookends, the wonderful praise and song of what Jesus Christ has accomplished is at the center of this section—second drawing near. If we have one thing to say as we draw near to Oregon City, as we potentially draw near to Portland. It is this wonderful message that Jesus Christ has reconciled earth and heaven and everything’s changed now and everything will change in the context of where we take this message.

So there’s again this wonderful as there was optimism at the center of the first drawing near—it happens just as Jesus said—here there’s optimism at the middle of the second section heaven and earth are joined. Everything’s changed. Angelic and earthly creatures all sing forth the praise of God for what he’s accomplishing in these various realms. It is a wonderful thing.

Now around that center in this second drawing near his opposition. The A prime section verse 39. “Some of the Pharisees called to him from the crowd, ‘Teacher, rebuke your disciples.’ He answered and said to them, ‘I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out.’”

So in the second drawing near, there’s opposition that’s going to happen. And as we draw near to our cities, opposition will occur. And interestingly, the opposition, of course, we could look at the scribes and Pharisees, but the religious leaders and the political leaders are opposed to what’s going on here. And Jesus says the stones would cry out. Again, there’s a reference in the Old Testament that we would help us to understand this a little bit.

The reference in the Old Testament is that stones indeed cried out in Habakkuk 2:11-12. “Listen, you give shameful counsel to your house, cutting off many peoples, and sin against your soul. For the stone will cry out from the wall, and the beam from the timbers will answer it. Woe to him who builds the town with bloodshed, who establishes a city by iniquity.”

Now, the immediate reference is the stones would cry out the praise of Jesus Christ. But when we link it up to Habakkuk and the other place in scripture where stones are crying things out, what do we see? The announcement of worshipping Jesus Christ is accompanied by the opposite, you know, by the flip side of that, which is destruction to Christ’s enemies. And specifically, these Pharisees now are linked up with those that will be destroyed. The stones will cry out to them, “Woe to you, for you’ve not built this city unrighteously. You built it on wickedness and bloodshed.”

And he repeats that in the next section as well. Their culpability for judgment. So we have the delightful center of the flip side of the Gloria in excelsis being sung here. Again, absolute confidence to those who process into cities and who affect the work of the Lord Jesus Christ in union with him being spirit empowered. Great confidence. But a growing awareness that opposition is part of the gig as well.

Drawing near three, verse 41. “Now as he drew near, he saw the city and wept over it.”

Now the opposition is intensified in the results of it. What’s going to happen to this particular city? Jesus is going to tell us. He weeps over the city. So here we have Jesus as the weeping prophet Jeremiah. The destruction will come to this city as it came to Jerusalem in the time of Jeremiah that created the exile situation and the church will go into exile as a result of the events of AD 70 and the persecution of the church.

Jesus is weeping over the city and you know you can fill into that weeping all kinds of things. What is it? Anguish, anger, despair, sentimentality, all kinds of things might enter into that weeping. But the point is this city is—we’re being told—its end will not be a good thing. And Jesus isn’t rejoicing over that. He’s weeping over the city.

He goes on to say, “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. Just as in the opening sequence of drawing near, there was instructions to the disciples. You, you, you, you, you, you’re going to do the work of Jesus, here it’s you, you, you, you, you are responsible for not doing that work. And as a result, Jesus says, visitation will come, destruction will occur, for days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you.

“So this is, you know, what Rome actually literally does—it puts a siege wall against Jerusalem. ‘Surround you and close you in on every side and level you and your children with 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.’”

So we’re not just processors. We’re recipients of the procession of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. And sometimes he comes to us in judgment and we’re we’re to be very sensitive to the day of his visitation upon us as well. So the tension that began to be created in the drawing near to the Pharisees opposed him. We’re told now how that will resolve. It’ll be bad for the city. This city will not ultimately be transformed. This city will be destroyed and destroyed in a in a very radical way.

In the next section, he now is in the temple. In verse 45, “He went into the temple and began to drive out those who bought and sold in it. And he said to them, ‘It is written, my house is a house of prayer, but you have made it into a den of thieves.’ And he was teaching daily in the temple.”

Why is the judgment upon them? Because they don’t care about transforming the city for the sake of Jesus Christ and building, you know, something that isn’t restrictive to people, but is open to people coming into the household of God. Very important truth for us as well, right? What walls do we put up that Jesus would say are destructive because they keep people away from the worship of God as opposed to being welcoming and inviting to people. Do we put up big stone walls around us? I mean, this is something very worth considering. What are the impact of our actions upon people who are potentially coming into the worship of Christ?

Now, you know, a lot more could be said about that, but we want to be very sensitive to be a worshipping community that doesn’t suffer the same sorts of condemnation that Christ brings to these people. Their house, his house was to be a house of prayer for all peoples. And they had made it into a house of prayer for particular kinds of people and had drawn up obstacles for the Gentiles who sincerely wanted to worship God in the context of that place.

And then “Jesus is teaching daily in the temple. So the temple is both the place of cleansing and it’s the place of instruction. But the chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people sought to destroy him and were unable to do anything, for all the people were very attentive to hear him.”

Again, the opposition is described, but the opposition is described in a way where we will be successful. Victory is what God has in store here. And victory is what God has for us as well as we in this story identify with the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. So, another look here at this, where are we at in the story?

Well, it’s interesting that just before this account, we have the parable of the ten minas. And he gives a parable where everybody is given a particular amount of things to use for Jesus. And the one who refuses to use his gifts and talents for Christ, Jesus takes them away from him. And so Jesus reminds us as we look at this story that we’re the ones who are being entrusted with an understanding of the impact of the Lord Jesus Christ upon the city, the culture, the centers of our commerce, our political action, and our culture. We’re being entrusted with those things and we’re going to be accountable to God. That’s what the parable that immediately preceded this told us.

We’re going to be held accountable to God to how well we use the stewardship responsibilities that the Lord Jesus Christ has called us to. We are a part of this text. We have the responsibilities to process into our cities. It’s interesting that in Luke 10 verses 8 through 11, this drawing near verse—this drawing near word—that’s so prevalent in Luke’s gospel is used. And now listen to the context.

“Whatever city you enter, he tells his disciples, and they receive you, eat such things as are set before you and heal the sick there and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ But whatever city you enter, and they do not receive you, go out into its streets and say, ‘The very dust of your city which clings to us, we wipe off against you. Nevertheless, know that the kingdom of heaven has come near you.’”

Four uses of the term right there in those few verses. And what are they? We are to draw near in the same way that Jesus drew near to Jerusalem. We draw near tomorrow to the places where God sends us. And as we draw near in union and communion with the Lord Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit, it is the kingdom of heaven itself. Nothing less than the kingdom of heaven drawing near to Portland, to Oregon City, to our place of work. We bring the kingdom with us. We are absolutely integrated into this text.

The text tells us that we’re the ones who actually work out the procession of the Lord Jesus Christ as we draw near to people in cities. Now, what are we supposed to do? What did he tell those disciples when you draw near? Heal people. What did Jesus say? You’re up on the mountain. It’s great, but there’s demon-possessed children at the foot of the mountain. Go back down. Do your work. What does he tell his disciples? Follow me. The garden is wonderful. The Mount of Olives is a wonderful place to be, but there’s a really bad city down there, and people need to be saved. And we’ve got work to do.

When we leave this place, we have to go down there and bring the kingdom of heaven to men. And some will reject us, and some will accept the work. And the triumphal entry, I believe in Matthew or John’s account, Jesus goes into the city, and it’s there that he heals the blind and the lame. The triumphal entry has an aspect certainly in the immediate historical account of Christ’s coming death and resurrection and the destruction of Jerusalem. It has an aspect of destruction to it. But don’t miss the healing that’s there as well. Jesus engages in that healing even in Jerusalem as described in the other gospel accounts of the triumphal entry.

That’s who we are. We’re people that have been called together to be sent out and we’re to be sent out into every place that we go tomorrow. But we’re also like Jesus to have a heart for the navel of the culture, the center of this state. It is a glorious thing and a very dangerous thing that we’re in the midst of right now at this church.

Couple of years ago, the elders and office deacons went off and did some strategic planning and how do we get these young people involved and how do we get ownership and you know, how do we you know all this stuff and we thought of things we could do. Well, that’s all good. That’s great. But somehow in the last few weeks or months, a number of young people have kind of said, “Hey, we really want to do something with this church plant idea. Maybe we should go plant a church in Portland.” Other young people have said, “Boy, it’s time to start evangelizing here in Oregon City or in the place where I go to school or in the malls that I shop at. What could be better?”

This is a wonderful blessing that all of a sudden the Lord God has answered our prayers of the last few years and young people at Reformation Covenant Church are ready for their mission. They’re ready for their task. Now, some people have already had missions and tasks. It’s not as if nothing’s been going on. But a particular element of our church, you see, they’re jazzed up, fired up, ready to go. That’s a great thing. And so, let’s approach it that way.

Let’s understand that in the providence of God, he’s brought us to this place in the context of, yes, it is absolutely our heart’s desire to transform the culture central center, Portland. Salem is the political center, but really it isn’t anymore. You know, I mean, Portland’s where it’s at. All the ideas, the political ideas that end up becoming legislation in Salem, almost all of them come from Portland. Portland is the navel of Oregon. There’s no doubt about it. And ultimately, the gospel has to penetrate there.

Now, this isn’t just us. We’re a tiny little church. There’s all kinds of people doing great work in Portland. And partly of what we want to do, and we look and pray for the transformation of Portland, is to recognize that this same story—these disciples who process in—there’s a lot of us and they’re not all here. Most of them aren’t here. Most of them processing into Portland to transform it are involved in other works.

There was this wonderful article that I sent out on the email list. Hopefully, some of you heard it or read it. I’m going to read a little bit of it. It was by Steve Dean, came out a couple of weeks ago and Michael L. It was dated February 26th. He’s a columnist for the Oregonian. Howard L. and I were talking this morning. We remember meeting Dean way back in the day as they say and we’ve known that he was—at that time was just getting started with the Oregonian—he’s been a columnist for 20 years—Christian guy. I think he went to somewhat of a liberal church but you know Christian guy.

Listen to what he writes. “Imagine then that you are a creature of faith in this fragmented city from Portland exhausted by its excesses discouraged by its values forever questioning how to live and work alongside people who seem so different from you how do you respond? Flee to the cloistered suburbs, deadbolt the doors, glue another fish on the back of your Honda.”

You know, but that’s what’s happened, of course, is that a long time ago, Christians did leave the city, and they’re still leaving it. And when you do that, you surrender the engine of culture, the engine of media, and the engine of political action. You surrender the navel to the enemy. That’s what’s happened. That’s why I talked about this last year when Marvin Olasky was out. That’s why we need a new Christian urbanism. We need long-term to recover the cities because those are the purveyors of everything else. They are the navels in the providence of God. Cities are important in our culture. Absolutely important.

So what he what Dean is describing is what Christians did 30, 40, 50 years ago. And as a result, it’s even worse now in Portland, of course. But I’ll back to his article or listen to the counsel of the prophet Jeremiah to the Jews, exiled 2,700 years ago in Babylon. “Build homes, plan to stay, plant gardens, eat the food you grow, you produce, marry and have children, multiply, do not dwindle away, and work for the peace and prosperity of Babylon. Pray to the Lord for that city where you are held captive. For if Babylon has peace, so will you.”

Wonderful, right? This is the theme we took up last year in the middle of the year. I think this is the theme that Steve Wilkins many of this preached on at the CRC meetings in Houston in October. This is the same theme, the same verses from Jeremiah that I that I think Richard John Neuhaus before his death was writing about in terms of the Catholic world. Everybody is waking up to we’re not in Kansas anymore and we probably haven’t been in Kansas for a long time. We’re in Babylon now. What do you do about it?

So Dean continues. “This morning 40 area churches will present the city of Portland with a check for $100,000. The gift is the public launch of the 2009 season of service and a private concession that the Evangelical Churches in Portland—or an inspirational chunk of it—has finally resolved that it is called upon to serve not castigate the city of its captivity to work and pray for its peace and prosperity. The area church has held one of those come to Jesus moments realizing—said Kevin Palau, executive vice president of the Luis Palau Association—that we’ve kind of blown it that we haven’t led with our actions. We’ve led with our words and sometimes our words have been antagonistic and hurtful.”

So those are—that’s really interesting, isn’t it? What they’re trying to do—Palau—and you know it’s interesting too because this church was originally spawned in the context of Cedar Mill Bible Church which was probably still is the home church of Luis Palau. My wife grew up with his and his kids and all that stuff. And we knew him back in the day, all that stuff. And here he is 25 years later arriving at the same place that we are with the same text. He’s preaching on to a gathering of 300 churches that he preached to in February to set this seeding of service up. He’s talking about the same verses. We’re talking about the same perspective. We’re talking about the spirit of God, I think, moving in lots of people’s hearts and minds from different theological perspectives to recognize we are in the midst now of Babylon.

Our job is to have long-term planning to transform the city and part of the transformation of that city are the miraculous acts of healing the blind, healing the lepers, etc. You know, City Bible Church has been doing these—I don’t remember what they call it—they’ve got huge youth gatherings. They have a big ministry in Portland to drug addicts, homeless, and after young people. Big deal going on. Imago Dei has planted itself there for a particular purpose. In town Presbyterian is trying to plant there in the context of Portland for really all we’re all talking about the same thing here. The spirit of God is moving to bring focus upon the transformation of Portland.

And the spirit of God is instructing the churches that it isn’t just words. It’s seasons of service. It’s helping. It’s doing the healing of the blind and helping the lame, etc. Now it’s more than that. Jesus instructed in the temple when he went into the city. There’s a message both of healing and curse that accompanies some of this stuff ultimately and long term. So there’s more than just, you know, becoming part of Babylon. The idea is not that we’re going to be changed by it. The idea is that we want to transform it as we work in the context of it.

And that’s something that’s very important for us. How you recapture people’s hearts, you do it more through living than talking. Dean goes on to write, “The evolving imperative in these churches to serve the city of Portland has its roots in several epiphanies, including Advent Conspiracy, the Imago Dei community’s attempt to put Christmas giving at the foot of the cross, not at the base of the tree, and the message of Jeremiah 29, which Luis Palau will highlight in his devotional today.

“And it has already borne fruit in the incredible work Imago Dei, South Lake Forest Square, Henson Baptist, and other churches are doing to aid Portland’s schools.”

Well, we’d want to think about that one a little bit. That’s one of my concerns about the Palau organization is an attempt to not see that the schools are the great purveyors of anti-Christian thought and seductive speech to our young people. So, you know, this is all good news, but I think what it means is that our role in this thing is important, too. And part of that is helping people slowly and surely like we’re doing here in Oregon City to recognize the difficulties that the public schools as an example present to us and to rethink approaches to what we’re—how do we fulfill the first part of the mandate of Jeremiah 29 as we’re going about seeking the second part?

If we’re seeking the peace of the city, do we forget the long-term problem that we’ve got of raising families successfully and working and doing vocation and having Christian marriages and Christian kids in the context of that. You see, so now the church has been all privatized. Now it could become all public politicized and lose the youth and everything’s not worked out any better. We pray to God that and expect that things will be different than that.

“He said, ‘We need to live out the Christ we’ve been talking about all these years,’” said Rick McKinley at Imago Dei.

Well, I could read more, I suppose, but it’s a wonderful article. There’s wonderful stuff happening. The spirit of God is moving in terms of this very Palm Sunday message, in terms of what the gospels presented to us that the spirit of God will move the body of Christ through various churches to seek to transform the navel, the centers of our culture, our media, our politics, and our business. And in the context of what we are, that means Portland. That’s what we’re going to be talking about this afternoon at my house.

How do we work in the context of that? What does it mean to us? How does it impact what we’re doing here in Oregon City. What we do in Oregon City has significance. God’s blessing in different ways. It’s long, slow, hard work. Are you a disciple today? Do you know that the King is your Lord? You know that the King expects you to take the kingdom of heaven with you tomorrow, wherever you drive in that car, as you go into the city—if you go to Oregon City, if you go to your home, wherever it is—Jesus says the kingdom of heaven is drawing near as you draw near to these things.

Big goals, big visions accomplished as we draw near, remembering that it’s a result of faithful actions in the past, being trained by God through those faithful actions to then be able to minister in a broader and better way. What does it say about faithfulness? It’s required of a steward that he be faithful. If you’re faithful in the small things, you’ll be given more. How can we be more faithful in terms of what we’re doing in Oregon City?

How can we then take that vision and move it into working alongside of various faith communities as I’ve been doing frankly for 20 years because of the homeschooling thing originally. But how do we work alongside of various other communities who are working hopefully to the same goal—that to seek the peace of Portland does not mean its quietness. It means its transformation and ultimately its submission to the King of Kings outside of which the Bible makes clear there is no peace.

That’s our task. That’s our vision. It’s a great one. We’re like little kids. We don’t know what the heck we’re doing. We’re just running around with our palm branches. That’s okay. God says that’s exactly okay. That’s why the service began the way it did. It’s a reminder to us that Jesus—and remember at the center of the first drawing near—Jesus knows exactly how this stuff will turn out. He will use our actions of submission to him, spirit empowered actions for him to affect the kind of change that is impossible based on our planning but totally absolutely to be expected because of his sovereign reign.

Let’s pray for wisdom. Lord God, we thank you for this day. I thank you so much for the answer of prayers to some of the young people in our church who are so interested now to evangelize and plant churches and transform the culture. Help us, Lord God, to have a great meeting this afternoon. Help us old folks to listen well. Help the young folks to listen well as well. And we pray that you would bless us as we seek to partner up with a lot of other churches here in Oregon City to transform it, but also with the broader community of Christ in Portland.

We thank you, Father, for laying it upon the hearts of your church by your Holy Spirit to have a long-term perspective, but also to seek the peace, to pray for it, and do actions of service that we seek to transform our cultural centers to being once more submissive and rejoicing and obedient to the Lord Jesus. We thank you that we can pray this confidently, knowing that indeed in heaven and in earth, joy and peace have been restored through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. In his name we pray. Amen. Amen.