Message: The Center of Your Circle
Luke 19:41 As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it 42 and said, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes. 43 The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. 44 They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.”
- Introduction: I want to begin today with a confession. If it weren’t for the saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, I would be one of the most selfish people on the planet. There’s more. I know Jesus as my Savior, and His Spirit dwells within me, yet I still sometimes find myself being selfish. At times, I even find myself doing good things for selfish reasons. I can testify that the Spirit is helping me, and for that I am grateful.
- The Lord has given all of us a survival instinct that, in proper alignment, is helpful. This survival instinct keeps me from falling off of tall buildings, it helps me (mostly) drive the speed limit, and it reminds me that I should not spend all my savings on golf clubs so that I can eat tomorrow. 🙂
- However, this survival instinct, if unchecked, can make us selfish and people who are always looking after themselves without considering others.
- This reality could easily make me respond incorrectly to Jesus’s example in the Triumphal Entry.
- Does any of this speak personally to you?
- As we look at our text today, we see Jesus triumphantly entering the city, and at the same time, he is weeping.
- Jesus is weeping—some insight into his weeping.
- Weeping could also be translated as wailing.
- Jesus is deeply moved amid the rejoicing.
- It is the original, “It’s my party, and I will cry if I want to.”
- He weeps for the city and not for himself.
- Let’s look at the text again,
- 42 and said, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes. 43 The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. 44 They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.”
- He weeps for a city filled with spiritually blinded people.
- I went to Israel with Steve Thigpen and my brother some years ago. When we entered Jerusalem, the tour guide announced, “Welcome to the holy city filled with many unholy people.”
- Jerusalem means “city of peace,” but the city of peace would lose out on peace. Why? They preferred a military messiah to free them from Roman bondage instead of a spiritual Messiah who would bring freedom from sin.
- Weeping could also be translated as wailing.
- How could people in such proximity to Jesus miss it?
- Illustration: This is the weekend of the Masters Golf Tournament. Most of you couldn’t care less. However, for golfers, it is the Super Bowl of sport. Right now, the golfer who is on top of the golf world is a guy named Scotty Scheffler. Scotty is a devout follower of Jesus, and years ago, he selected a caddy named Ted Scott. The biggest reason. He was also a very committed follower of Jesus. In an interview leading up to this week’s tournament, this is what Ted Scott said,
- If you put yourself in the center of your circle, it always leads to misery. But if you put Christ at the center of your circle, you will be led to purpose and life.
- That day, as Jesus was ushered into the city, he knew that he was surrounded by a bunch of people whose propensity was to place themselves and their desires at the center of their circle.
- Their greatest desire was for a political messiah, and that desire would lead them to destruction in less than a generation.
- Look with me. Jesus proclaims,
- 43 The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side.
- Do you see it? A people who find themselves inside a circle that will be absent of Jesus is a circle that closes in on itself and brings destruction.
- As the people waved palm branches representing military victory, they missed out on the donkey representing peace.
- Again, how could people in such proximity to Jesus miss it?
- Let’s zoom in on the crowd and look at some people closest to Jesus. How about those who were in his inner circle?
- Let’s begin with
- Simon Peter
- Matthew 16: 21 NIV From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. 22 Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!” 23 Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”
- What’s happening here? Simon Peter may be in the inner circle of Jesus yet he is more worried about being the center of his own circle.
- How about the Zebedee brothers?
- James and John (Sons of Zebedee)Mark 10: 35 NIV Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him. “Teacher,” they said, “we want you to do for us whatever we ask.” 36 “What do you want me to do for you?” he asked. 37 They replied, “Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory.” Later in the text, the other disciples are “indignant”…. Upset. Why? There is likely a part of them that desires the same position.
- The takeaway: The very men in Jesus’s inner circle battled the temptation to want to be the center of their own circle.
- Illustration: The Mouse Trap Story.
- We battle the same temptation.
- Conclusion: Our small stories connected to HIs bigger story.
- What is the correct response to the Triumphal Entry?
- Model the posture of Jesus. What is the posture of Jesus?
- Zechariah prophesied that he would come “humble, riding on a donkey.”
- Zechariah got it right. Jesus would, and He is calling us to do the same.
- Conclusion: Here’s the truth. Jesus has drawn a circle, and he has placed your name at the center of it. We truly understand life when we draw a circle and put him and his mission in the center of our circle.
- Basin Theology. It is a theology modeled in our posture to put others first.