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Welcome to Faith of Our Fathers. Today we feature John Stott, described as the presumptive pope. Stott says that the central message of the Gospel is not the teachings of Jesus, but Jesus himself, the human divine figure. He is always bringing people back to the concrete reality of Jesus life and sacrifice. In 2011, the evangelical world lost one of its groups and I have lost one of my closest friends and advisors, said Billy Graham. Today on Palm Sunday, John Stott presents a sermon on entering.

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One of the abiding fascinations of the four Gospels is the way in which they illustrate different people's attitudes to Jesus. We need to remember that much of the material that is incorporated in the four Gospels was preserved by the early churches for teaching purposes, both in evangelism and in the instruction of catechumens, in preparing them for baptism, and also in leading young disciples on into maturity in Christ. And that is why discipleship is one of the major themes of the Gospels. What does it mean to be a follower of Jesus Christ? What is involved in committing your life to Jesus Christ? What difference does it make whether you follow Jesus Christ or not? And as we read the Gospels, we find that the whole spectrum of possible responses to Jesus is included. The spectrum from total rejection to total submission, belief, unbelief half belief, love, hatred, suspicion, indifference, loyalty, betrayal. All these possible responses to Jesus are illustrated in the Gospel story. I'm sure you found this, haven't you yourself, when you're reading the Gospels, that these stories help us to clarify where we stand. Because as we read the Gospels, we identify with this person or with that person and find it impossible to identify with somebody else because of their reaction to Jesus. Well, that little introduction to our thinking together this morning is due to the fact that I think it is the clue to our understanding of. Of the text that we have been set. And I want to ask you, if you kindly will, to turn to it. In Luke's gospel, chapter 19, it is in fact in the New Testament section on page 79, and it begins at verse 28. What Luke does here, because he's a consummate artist, tradition says that he was an artist in colors. Whether that is so or not, he was certainly an artist in words and structures. And the whole of his Gospel is a beautifully crafted structure. And here we have brought before us three little scenarios, three little cameos which depict Jesus with different people. Glance at them with me before we begin to draw out their teaching. In verse 28, we see Jesus going ahead of the 12 and going up to Jerusalem. When Jesus said Theres this. He went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. There is Jesus, separated from the 12 because he is ahead of them and they have lagged behind him. That's his first little cameo. The second concerns the donkey, verses 29 to 34. Jesus sent two of the disciples to fetch the donkey and the owners of it. On hearing the password that had evidently been prearranged, namely, the Lord has need of it. Release the donkey and let it go. We have to ask what that has to teach us today. And then thirdly, in verses 35 to 40, is the familiar pageant of the triumphal entry, or in this case, the triumphal approach to Jerusalem. The disciples spread their garments on the back of the donkey and then on the road. And they broke into spontaneous praise. All of them, except those sour grapes Pharisees who told Jesus to rebuke his disciples and to whom Jesus replied with that memorable phrase that if they keep quiet, the very stones will cry out. So there you see three little cameos. Jesus going ahead of the 12. Jesus and the owners of the donkey, Jesus and the crowds and the Pharisees. What are we to understand about these? Are they just little stories, just little pictures painted with Luke's pen? No. They have profound significance for us as Christian disciples today. Firstly, then we have Jesus and the 12. I want to read you again, verse 29, 28. When Jesus had said this, he went on ahead of them, going up to Jerusalem. Well, at first sight, when you read it, it's a very matter of fact little statement. You probably skip over it and imagine that it has nothing particular to teach us. They're going up to Jerusalem together and they got a little bit separated. Jesus is in front and the 12 are behind. But you may be quite sure that Luke sees in this much more than meets the eye. Have you learned, I wonder, to begin to interpret Scripture in the light of Scripture? Has everybody in church this morning learned this fundamental hermeneutical principle that we have to allow Scripture to interpret Scripture? And when you're in one of the Gospels, you have to have in your mind all the time what the basic concern of the evangelist is and to interpret each passage in the light of the story that he is building up. Now, Luke, as a matter of fact, has spent 10 chapters, which scholars sometimes call the Great Interpolation, describing Jesus final journey up to Jerusalem and the teaching that he is giving during his journey. So important is this theme that I want to ask you to keep your Bible open and look at a few verses with me just to make sure that I'M not reading this into the text, but that Luke has put it there. Do you mind turning back to chapter nine in Luke's gospel? And let's look at verse 51. This is the beginning of the so called great interpolation. You see, there's a little paragraph there. There's space in the Revised Standard Version indicating that a new section begins here. So verse 51 of Luke 9. When the days drew near for Jesus to be received up, that is for him to die, to be resurrected and to be exalted to heaven, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. Verse 53. But the people did not receive him, the Samaritans, because his face was set towards Jerusalem. This is a new beginning. You see, in Luke's story, Jesus is steadfastly determined to go to Jerusalem. Turn on to chapter 13, verse 22. He went on his way through the towns and villages, teaching and journeying towards Jerusalem. Verse 33 of the same. I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the day following, because it cannot be that a prophet should perish outside Jerusalem. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, killing the prophets, stoning those who are sent to you, and so on. I tell you, you will not see me, verse 35, until you say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, which is what they shouted on Palm Sunday. Move on to chapter 17, verse 11. On the way to Jerusalem, he was passing along. Chapter 18, verse 31. Taking the 12. Jesus said, behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written of the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished. He'll be delivered to the Gentiles, mocked, shamefully treated, spat upon, scourged, killed. And the day, the third day, he will rise again then to our own. Chapter 19, verse 11. They heard these things. He proceeded to tell a parable because he was near Jerusalem and because they supposed the kingdom of God was to appear immediately. Then our text, verse 28, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. Now, with that background that we sketched in very briefly, you will be quite clear, will you not, that the Jerusalem to which he's going up is the Jerusalem that has killed the prophets, and in which he himself is going to be killed and rejected. So Luke's statement that he went on ahead is not primarily a chronological statement, that he was a few minutes or hours ahead of them. People had forgotten to put their clocks on, as a number of people evidently did today, arriving so late. Now, it isn't a chronological matter that he was a few minutes ahead of them. It isn't a geographical matter that he was a few yards ahead of them. It is a theological matter that he was going on ahead to Jerusalem and they were lagging behind because they didn't want him to go up to Jerusalem. They didn't want him to be rejected and to suffer and to die. He was determined to go to the cross, but they were not determined to allow him to do so. So he was ready for the cross and they were not. Now lagging behind Jesus is a common failure of Christian discipleship, especially in regard to the cross. The necessity of the cross for Jesus and the obligation of Christian disciples to take up our cross and and follow Jesus are plain as day in the New Testament. There is no Christianity without the cross for Jesus. And there is no Christianity without the cross for the disciples of Jesus. But there are many of us who would love to be able to reconstruct Christianity without the cross. We have never grasped the centrality of the cross either in the life of Christ or in the life of the Christian. So Jesus goes on ahead of us to the cross and we don't keep pace with him. We lag behind. We don't want the cross to be as central as it is in the life of Jesus. The cross is too humiliating for us to imagine that it was necessary for the Son of God to die and that there's no other way for us to be saved except that he should bear our sin and that we don't want such a radical remedy for sin. It's humiliating. And as for us having to go to the cross and die to our own self centeredness, no, thank you very much. We'd much prefer a less radical kind of discipleship to one of death and resurrection. So there you see as Jesus and the 12, Jesus going ahead of them and the 12 lagging behind. Are you conscious, anybody here, of lagging behind Jesus? There are parts of his teaching, frankly, you don't like. He's gone on ahead of you, you're way behind him. It's the first lesson in discipleship that we're given. Now we move on to something quite different as we go to Jesus, from Jesus and the 12 to Jesus and the owners of the donkey. Now, the incident of the donkey bears all the signs of a prearranged and stage managed drama. Jesus, we know, was determined to fulfill what was written of him in the Scriptures. And he was determined to be a suffering rather than a triumphant Messiah. He was determined not to fall into the trap of the zealots and to become a conquering Messiah who would overthrow Rome, drive the legions into the Mediterranean. He was determined to be a suffering servant, to ride into Jerusalem not upon the elephant, the camel, or the war horse we were thinking about before, but to ride on a donkey in fulfillment of Zechariah 9, verse 9. Because he would come meek, gentle, humble, riding upon the back of an ass. So he had been teaching the 12 about this, and now he was going to dramatize it publicly. Up till now it had been a secret, the so called messianic secret. He told them to keep it to themselves, don't tell anybody about it. But now he made it public, he dramatized it publicly, and he showed them the kind of messiah he'd come to be. But the only snag in the dramatization is that he didn't have a donkey. But if he was going to dramatize Zechariah 9:9 he'd got to find a donkey somewhere. So though he hadn't got one himself, he had friends in Bethany or in a village nearby who had one. So it seems almost certain that on a previous visit to Jerusalem, he'd arranged with them to lend him the donkey when the time came for the dramatization, and that they would release it on the saying of the password, which was the Lord needs it. So the two disciples went into the village, they found the donkey, they untied it, and sure enough, as Jesus said, they were challeng by the donkey's owners. What are you doing? Untying the donkey. To which they gave the password, the Lord needs it. And immediately they let it go. Very trivial. Another of these incidents that has a little color about it. We all like donkeys, I expect. You know G.K. chesterton's wonderful poem about the donkey. But it isn't trivial like that, you know. It's a very eloquent story. The owners of the donkey are anonymous followers of Jesus. To this day nobody has any idea who they were. But their commitment to Jesus was unconditional. Their property was at his disposal. And if he wanted anything, he could have it. The little phrase the Lord needs it was enough. So that brings me to the third little cameo, which I will call Jesus the Crowds and the Pharisees. For when the two disciples had brought the donkey to Jesus, they spread their cloaks or garments on the back of the donkey to form a kind of makeshift. And then they lifted Jesus onto the saddled donkey. And as they went along, other people joined them. They spread their garments in the road. We know the story very well. And then they reached the bend in the road from Bethany to Jerusalem, when the glittering buildings of Jerusalem first come into view and the road begins to descend down the Mount of Olives into the city itself. And at that point the whole crowd of disciples verse 37 broke into praise. In a loud voice they quoted Psalm 119:26. But they made a significant change in the text. The text says, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. They said, blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord. They conflated Psalm 118:26 with Zechariah 9:9. Behold, your king comes. Behold, he who comes in the name of the Lord, your King comes. And they put the two together. This was the triumphal entry of the king into his capital city. I wish I'd been there, don't you? It would have been a marvelous sight and a marvelous sound. These were the disciples of Jesus who believed in him. And their loud praises were the spontaneous overflow of hearts filled with faith and with love for Jesus. Except for the sour pussy Pharisees, they spoiled it all. They couldn't bear to see Jesus being worshiped. They could not bear to see Jesus accepting the worship of men and women. They didn't believe in him. They were assured that Jesus was not the Messiah, as the disciples were sure that he was. So they were offended. They were convinced it was at least misguided and at worst blasphemous. So they said, teacher, rebuke your disciples. Surely you can't approve of what they're saying about you. To which Jesus made the memorable response that if they are silent, even the stones will break into worship. It was an extraordinary claim that Jesus made that he was worthy of of the worship which they were giving him, that it was meet right and their bounden duty to worship Him. Praise of Jesus simply must be expressed by somebody or something, somehow. And if animate beings will not bring their praise to Jesus, whether human beings or for that matter, donkeys like Balaam's ass, then inanimate objects like stones will do it. Whether he was referring to the buildings around or to the rocks on the Mount of Olives, we don't know. But the stones would form themselves into a choir and burst into irrepressible singing. Well, let's learn these lessons about discipleship. I wonder if, as I begin to conclude, you'd like to place yourself in one or other of these scenes, because these are the lessons I want to suggest that Luke is deliberately seeking to teach us from these little cameos or little scenarios about Jesus. One concerns A disciple's beliefs no disciple should make today should make the mistake that the twelve made when they let Jesus go on ahead and were reluctant to follow Him. We should never lag behind the teaching of Jesus Christ because a disciple is not above his teacher. And Jesus invites us today to take his yoke upon us and to learn from him and to submit with heart and mind and will to his authoritative teaching. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, deserves that we should agree with his teaching. And we have no liberty to disagree with him. Whether the issue between us and Jesus concerns His cross or our cross or something else, let's keep up with Jesus. Let's level with the teaching of Jesus. Let's not hold back or lag behind. It's a great thing to be committed to the teaching of Jesus Christ. The disciples beliefs then secondly, a disciple's possession. We may not have any donkeys at our disposal, but then he probably doesn't need them today. Although you know, in rural areas there are churches all over the country that take donkeys to church on Palm Sunday and let the children ride on them. Not at all a bad idea. But Jesus doesn't need donkeys very much today. But he does need many other things that we have. What about your home? My home. He wants our home in order, through us to entertain strangers and people who need hospitality and friendship. He needs our car in which we can give other people lifts who don't have the benefit of that particular extravagance that most of us do have. He needs our time, our energy, our money. And the question is whether these things are at his disposal. Whether we take that prearranged password and make it our Christian motto or slogan and say, well, if the Lord needs it, he shall have it. I wonder if you've ever said that to Jesus Christ about your possessions, donkeys and all. If the Lord needs it, he shall have it. And there is nothing that we want to withhold from him a disciple's beliefs, a disciple's possessions and then a disciple's worship. Oh, that we should all be true followers of Jesus and not wet blanket Pharisees. You see, we don't need to begrudge Jesus the worship that is due to him. So let me ask you what. What is your attitude as Sunday approaches? When you get to Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday? What's your attitude when you get out of bed? Or conversely, don't get out of bed on Sunday morning? How do you think about the day of worship? Let me ask you frankly, is Sunday the high point of your week? Is this brief period of one and a half hours in which we sing the praises of Jesus Christ, the joyful distillation of the whole of the rest of your week and the whole of the rest of your life. People have sometimes said to me that they really can't imagine that God wants to listen to hymns sung to him on Sundays. What on earth does God want to listen to our hymns for? People have said, well, if it's only the words and the music, I guess that's so. He doesn't particularly want to listen. But if the music and the words are the expression of a heart that is devoted to him in love and expresses the fact that he is worthy to be praised, why then our worship brings much pleasure and joy to Almighty God. And if we don't worship, Jesus says, then the rest of creation will. The rest of creation will step into the breach, compensate for our silence and burst forth into praise. Those are the lessons I learn that I believe Luke wants to teach. From the text that has been set us. Our minds are to keep pace with the teaching of Jesus. Our possessions are to be at the disposal of Jesus. And our worship is to bring honor to the name of Jesus. That is what it means to be a disciple. On Palm Sunday in the 1980s. Let us pray. I think we have time for a little meditation. We have been thinking of the disciples beliefs whether we agree with Jesus or disagree with him. We thought of the disciples possessions, whether they are at his disposal or not. And we have thought of the Disciples worship. Whether there is a spontaneous upsurge of praise in our hearts. And measured by that standard, how is our discipleship? Let's ask and answer that question in a moment of silence. Lord Jesus Christ, we thank you for the enormous privilege it is to be one of your disciples. And as you go ahead, we pray that we may keep pace with you. That we may seek to honor and obey you, to put our possessions at your disposal and to bring to you gladly and gratefully the praise and worship of our hearts. We ask it for the glory of your great and worthy name. Amen.