Real Life Selkirk
**March 29** The Lord Needs It (Luke 19:29-40)
  • How Good It Is
  • The Lord's Prayer (It's Yours)

      • Luke 19:29–40NIV2011

  • God So Loved
  • Morning By Morning

  • Sermon

    Key Passage

    Luke 19:29–40 NIV
    As he approached Bethphage and Bethany at the hill called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples, saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ say, ‘The Lord needs it.’ ” Those who were sent ahead went and found it just as he had told them. As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, “Why are you untying the colt?” They replied, “The Lord needs it.” They brought it to Jesus, threw their cloaks on the colt and put Jesus on it. As he went along, people spread their cloaks on the road. When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen: “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!” “I tell you,” he replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.”

    Vision/Mission/Process

    Vision:
    We exist to reach the world for Jesus, one person at a time
    Share a story about how this was seen this week.

    Introduction

    We are taking two weeks off from our sermon series in Matthew to set our eyes upon the arrival of Jesus to Jerusalem, which led to His crucifixion and resurrection.
    The next two weeks we will rest on these points.
    As we have journeyed in the book of Matthew for the last few months, we begun to learn the timeline of Jesus’ life:
    Birth
    Early ministry (Calling His disciples)
    Miracles and demonstration of His authority
    Walking the talk (Jesus lived out the calling in front of His disciples)
    Last week of Jesus’ human life
    We are skipping ahead to this.
    Our passage today is day 1 of the last week of Jesus’ human life.
    It is a massive story that ushers in the greatest moment of salvation the world has ever seen.
    I love watching movies
    One of the movies my family greatly enjoys is the Lord of the Rings series.
    There is a scene where all of the good guys are defending a castle in Helm’s deep.
    The forces that represent evil are attacking the castle.
    They fight valiantly, but the invading forces are too many and too strong.
    They see the end is near.
    The doors of the castle are breached and the evil soldiers enter the castle.
    Then, on the horizon, Gandalf and the elf army arrive.
    At the moment of deepest darkness and certain defeat, hope arrives at the top of the mountain.
    Many stories, books, and movies have a similar moment of hopelessness when the hero arrives.
    This is what this story in the Bible reflects. It is the arrival of the hero at a time of defeat.
    Salvation is near. The King has arrived for His Kingdom!

    Set the stage

    I want us to understand what the people saw and why they responded how they responded when Jesus arrived.
    Up to this point, Jesus had entered a lot of cities. However, no city had ever received Him in this way.
    Jesus had done some amazing things. He had done miracles, He had taught amazing things.
    However, these people were not waving palm branches because they wanted Jesus to do a few miracles and preach a sermon.
    There was something much greater happening here.
    The people of Israel had known incredible difficulties over the span of their existence.
    Early on, they had experienced 400 years of slavery in Egypt
    They had been rescued by Moses.
    Moses was not a king. Rather, he was a man that God had raised up to bring them to freedom.
    God did miraculous things to free them from Egyptian rule
    As a means of remembering what God had done, they celebrated the Passover every year. Many of the elements of the Passover symbolically represented different parts of their journey to freedom
    They were slaves and now they were free
    A part of the celebration was looking ahead to when God would again save them through the Messiah.
    During this time of our passage today, many people would flock to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover.
    They would journey to the city singing the Songs of the Ascents (book of Psalms) along the way.
    If you could imagine being in Jerusalem during this time.
    You would hear the voices of thousands of people walking into your town, singing praise to God.
    It would be an amazing thing to experience
    The hope of every person in the city was looking back to when God had freed them through Moses, and looking ahead to when God would free them through His Messiah.
    This was promised by God throughout the Scriptures.
    Psalm 89:3–4 NIV
    You said, “I have made a covenant with my chosen one, I have sworn to David my servant, ‘I will establish your line forever and make your throne firm through all generations.’ ”
    Isaiah 9:6–7 NIV
    For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.
    Daniel 7:13–14 NIV
    “In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.
    At this time, the problem they saw was that they were under the Roman rule and it had not always been smooth
    The taxes to Caesar
    Roman empire dictated in part who their high priest would be
    Herodian Kingship
    They had some freedoms, but in their minds, true freedom came through an act like what God had done with Moses.
    The people were looking ahead for that moment.
    Great anticipation.

    Text Breakdown

    Luke 19:29–35 NIV
    As he approached Bethphage and Bethany at the hill called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples, saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ say, ‘The Lord needs it.’ ” Those who were sent ahead went and found it just as he had told them. As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, “Why are you untying the colt?” They replied, “The Lord needs it.” They brought it to Jesus, threw their cloaks on the colt and put Jesus on it.
    There is an entire sermon caught up in this passage. It may seem simple, but there is profound application in this.
    We are going to circle back around to this passage.
    But what we need to see from this passage to understand the story is this:
    Jesus was arriving to Jerusalem.
    He sends a couple of his disciples ahead of him to track down a donkey
    They bring the colt back to Jesus
    They throw their cloaks on the back of the donkey likely to serve as a saddle of some sort
    Luke 19:36–38 NIV
    As he went along, people spread their cloaks on the road. When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen: “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”
    As I said earlier, Jesus had entered a lot of cities, but this was new.
    These crowds were acting in a way that was borderline on inciting a riot.
    They were praising God for miracles and what God had done.
    Jesus didn’t come to do miracles
    He came to seek and to save the lost. He was given a ministry of reconciliation.
    They were celebrating what they had seen and they were celebrating something that they were interpreting from the given circumstances.
    I want us to take a short journey to the OT again.
    Zechariah 9:9 NIV
    Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
    They had acknowledged the miracles. The miracles were the sign that Jesus had the authority of God.
    They rightly interpreted the authority of Jesus by the use of His miracles
    They rightly interpreted that Jesus was the Messiah.
    And if this moment before them was the fulfilment of Zechariah 9:9, then the following would be right around the corner!!!
    Zechariah 9:10–11 NIV
    I will take away the chariots from Ephraim and the warhorses from Jerusalem, and the battle bow will be broken. He will proclaim peace to the nations. His rule will extend from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth. As for you, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will free your prisoners from the waterless pit.
    Zechariah 9:16–17 NIV
    The Lord their God will save his people on that day as a shepherd saves his flock. They will sparkle in his land like jewels in a crown. How attractive and beautiful they will be! Grain will make the young men thrive, and new wine the young women.
    The hero had just entered the story. The oppressive Roman government was about to be overthrown.
    They were about to experience a second Passover
    They were remembering what God had done through Moses.
    Now they were going to get to live out the second story of God’s work in their people with another journey from slavery to freedom.
    This was a huge moment, literally hundreds of years in the making.
    Matthew pointed to the arrival of Jesus by quoting Isaiah.
    Matthew 4:15–16 NIV
    “Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, the Way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles— the people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.”
    It’s no wonder that everyone came out and began praising God!
    The Messiah had arrived
    Light in the land of the shadow of death had dawned.
    Luke 19:39 NIV
    Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!”
    To this point the Pharisees had been an oppositional force to Jesus
    Earlier in Jesus’ ministry, He had seen the people of Israel and had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd.
    Here is the thing, they were given leaders, but the leaders didn’t protect them, guide them, bandage them.
    The leaders were the Pharisees.
    They thought they were doing a good job.
    Jesus revealed that they weren’t doing a good job.
    This is one of the reasons the Pharisees were oppositional to Jesus
    These Pharisees saw the crowd identifying Jesus as the prophesied Messiah. They were making statements like:
    Luke 19:38 NIV
    “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”
    These were direct statements to the prophecies of the coming Messiah.
    The Pharisees tried to stop this event from happening and wanted to get Jesus to rein in these statements.
    Jesus responded
    Luke 19:40 NIV
    “I tell you,” he replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.”
    What a powerful message! This wasn’t simply an event for that moment.
    This was the redemption of all God’s creation.
    The Creator has become flesh.
    In Romans 8 it says that all of creation is groaning as if in the pains of childbirth awaiting redemption.
    This is a powerful story with some amazing fulfilment of prophecy and symbolism in it.
    I want to drive home a few points here today.

    Teaching

    We might see this and believe that Jesus came as the Messiah.
    He was the fulfillment of all of those prophecies.
    “The Lord needs it”
    What do I have to give?
    I want to step back and look at an early part of this story
    As Jesus was approaching Jerusalem, He sends his guys to go find a donkey.
    He sends them to a specific guy and they start to untie his donkey.
    The owner says, “Hold on! What are you doing? Why are you taking my donkey?”
    The disciples answer what Jesus had instructed, “The Lord needs it.”
    This guy let the donkey go.
    We can think through the characters of this story.
    Jesus, the disciples and the donkey, right?
    Well, there is one guy who isn’t named. His role is very small, but his obedience allowed this moment to take place for Jesus
    The guy who owned the donkey
    This guy is likely sitting up in heaven somewhere seeing what happened, so happy that he let his donkey go that day.
    If someone came and asked, “Can I borrow your truck?”
    I say, “Why?”
    They say, “Jesus needs it.”
    I’d be like, “Yeah right, I’ll hold onto my truck or I’ll bring it to Jesus myself.”
    Here is something that we need to know about God’s will and God’s work in this world.
    God is All-Powerful. That means that God can literally do anything
    However, God still wants to use us to accomplish His work in this world.
    God could have very easily spoken a donkey into existence. He had done it once before. He could do it again.
    Instead, He wanted to use the donkey that belonged to this man.
    I want to start the application part of this sermon by asking this question: What do you have tied up in your life that Jesus is asking to use?
    The donkey wasn’t a grand gesture. It wasn’t a million dollars. But it did require trust and sacrifice.
    This isn’t asking the question, “Will you go to Africa?” Or “Will you give all of your money?”
    This is the subtle question of trust
    Will you open your home for a life group?
    Will you begin sacrificial giving at church?
    Is there a need that you have the means to help?
    The other side of our sacrifice is the glory of God to the world around
    This guy possibly didn’t even know what his donkey was being used for.
    But God was glorified.
    “They praised God for the miracles they had seen”
    Allow Jesus to be King over my life
    When the crowd saw Jesus, they saw the fulfillment of the prophesies that were to be fulfilled.
    They saw their problems and thought they were the biggest issues in the world.
    I don’t know where you are in life, but we all tend to carry this perspective.
    Our current problems are the biggest problems
    We can see that on the news when we watch the news.
    Whatever is in the news is the life and death biggest thing happening on the planet.
    Then next week another biggest thing on the planet will be happening.
    They were cheering Jesus, but the crowd walked away and some even began to reject Jesus when He didn’t fulfill what they wanted Him to fulfill.
    He is King
    His perspective of our problems are more important than ours
    I want you to take a moment and think through the struggles you walked in the door with today.
    Is it bills? Health? Conflict? Work?
    We all have issues and struggles.
    We tend to come to Jesus and see Him as the solution to our biggest problems.
    I’m not saying your struggles aren’t struggles. They are.
    But did Jesus come to free Jerusalem from the Romans?
    No.
    He came to set them free from the slavemaster of sin and death
    They didn’t see that as a pressing problem
    Jesus did
    Allowing Jesus to be the King of your life means that you allow Him to resolve the issues of your life in the order and manner that He chooses.
    You may have conflict. It is possible that Jesus isn’t going to resolve the conflict in your life
    It may be that He changes your heart in that conflict and there is a different outcome to the conflict because there is a new creation a new heart in the conflict.
    Jesus will always work on our heart
    It doesn’t matter if you work at this job or that job
    Live in this house or that house
    Your job, your house, your circumstances don’t make you holy or unholy.
    The level of control over your heart that you give Jesus does that.
    Let Him work on your heart and allow Him to then guide you and work in your life
    Matthew 6:33 NIV
    But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
    “The rocks will cry out”
    He will be glorified
    Here is a truth that we must know. God will be glorified in this world.
    There may be times that are confusing. There may be times that it clearly seems that God is not being glorified.
    But we serve an all-powerful, all-loving, ever-present God. He is a God of redemption.
    As broken as this world gets, it is still His. He is still creator. He is still savior. He is still God.
    In this we can place our confidence. In this truth we can live.
    It is our calling to allow Him to be glorified in what we do and in who we are.
    We desire for Him to be seen.
    May we bring Him glory in our words, our deeds, and our heart.
    Philippians 2:9–11 NIV
    Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

    Conclusion

    The King came to Jerusalem all those years ago. And the same is true for us today.
    The King has come.
    However, the King has come on His terms, not on ours
    The people saw Him and celebrated as long as He fulfilled their idea of what the King should do.
    Jesus didn’t come to be lorded over. He came to be Lord
    Our lives must be lives of surrender to Him.
    The King we need is not always the King we want
    We must embrace surrender to the King
    We must allow Him to be King over our whole lives
    We must glorify Him as King so the world sees Him

    1. Am I truly surrendering to Jesus as King… or only following Him when He meets my expectations?

    When He doesn’t fix the situation…
    When He doesn’t move on your timeline…
    When obedience costs something…
    👉 Do I still trust Him as King—or do I quietly pull back?

    2. What is “tied up” in my life right now that I know the Lord is asking for—but I haven’t released?

    A relationship?
    Control of a situation?
    My time, resources, or comfort?
    👉 If He is King, why am I still holding onto it?

    3. Is my worship rooted in who Jesus is… or in what He has done for me lately?

    Would I still praise Him in the silence?
    In the struggle?
    When the miracle doesn’t come?
    👉 If everything in my life stayed hard… would He still be worthy of my worship?
    Discovery Class

      • Luke 19:29–40NIV2011

      • Psalm 89:3–4NIV2011

      • Isaiah 9:6–7NIV2011

      • Daniel 7:13–14NIV2011

      • Luke 19:29–35NIV2011

      • Luke 19:36–38NIV2011

      • Zechariah 9:9NIV2011

      • Zechariah 9:10–11NIV2011

      • Zechariah 9:16–17NIV2011

      • Matthew 4:16ESV

      • Luke 19:39NIV2011

      • Luke 19:38NIV2011

      • Luke 19:40NIV2011

      • Matthew 6:33NIV2011

      • Philippians 2:9–11NIV2011

  • How Deep The Father's Love For Us
Real Life Selkirk
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