We're hearing more of that next week. Several months ago, some friends had given me a copy of the book, Killing Lincoln, The Shocking Assassination that changed America forever. It's by Bill O'Reilly and Martin DeGarde. If you like history and I do, it's a very well-written book about the events of the spring of 1985 culminating in the death of President Lincoln and then the capture of John Wilkes Booth and the other conspirators afterwards. But the writers do what I think is really interesting device them to move the narrative along. It's written like a novel, as I say, and the first chapter begins this way. The man with six weeks to live is anxious, over a matter of concern in the Civil War. A couple chapters later, you hear, the man with 14 days to live is himself viewing death or the siege of Petersburg, and then further on into the book, you read, the man with two hours to live is dressing for the theater that evening. So they use that device to move that plot along leading up to the death of President Lincoln. So it occurred to me, as I was looking again at the texts for Palm Sunday, there are basically four different texts we look at in each gospel, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. It occurred to me this past week as I was looking at those texts that if Luke's gospel were released today, it might very well be called Killing Jesus, the Shocking Sacrifice that changed the world forever. And if so, this section would begin, this passage would begin. The man with five days to live is approaching Jerusalem. That's where we'll pick it up. Luke chapter 19 verses 20 through 40. So you get the chronological context. This is the Sunday of the year 1833, the Sunday of Holy Week, the Sunday before Jesus will be betrayed, arrested, crucified, and resurrected the following Sunday. This is the last Sunday before the events that would change the world forever or the world would never be the same again after that following Sunday. Luke writes, after Jesus had said this, he went on ahead going up to Jerusalem as he approached Bethveg and Bethany at the hill called the Mount of Olives. He sent two disciples saying to them, go to the village ahead of you, and as you enter it, you will find a cult tied there which no one has ever ridden, untie it, and bring it here. If anyone asks you, why are you untying it, tell him the Lord needs it. Those who were sent ahead went and found it just as he had told them. As they were untying the cult, its owners asked them, why are you untying the cult? They replied, the Lord needs it. They brought it to Jesus through their cloaks on the cult 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 and 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 you to disciples. I tell you he replied, if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out. Let's pray. Thank you Father for this text. Thank you for inspiring your servant, Luke, to pen these words and for the preservation of these words down to the centuries so that we can read them today. In these words, we see other aspects, other nuances of the man, of the character of our Lord and Savior Jesus, our prophet, our priest, and our king. It's my prayer that we would see him as I bring this message to your people. I pray it in his name. Amen. Well, as I mentioned, there are really four texts we look at in the gospels and they each have some details that the others don't have and each excludes some things that the others include and it occurred to me as I checked my files, I haven't preached this text in Luke for about six or seven years and I was saying to myself, I haven't preached Luke and basically it's this is that Luke's account doesn't really include much that isn't spelled out or fleshed out more fully in the other gospel writers with one exception, with one detail that Luke includes that the rest of them don't and that's what I'm going to spend the bulk of my time on this morning. But look with me again, verse 29 is the approach, Bethavige and Bethany, and he'll call the Mount of Olives. This, ladies and gentlemen, this is final approach. Once Jesus goes over that hill and begins in his way into Jerusalem, the die is cast. There will be no turning back. It would have been perfectly understandable. Remember, he is fully gone but he is fully man and he knew what awaited him. It would have been perfectly understandable if Jesus would have pulled back there as he crested that hill and began to look into Jerusalem. It would have been perfectly understandable if he would have said, you know, maybe we need to stop and pull back and reassess, reconnoiter. Let's reassess our strategy and our preparedness, our strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats. These men, they're not ready, they're not ready for me to leave them, they're not ready for the trials, they're waiting and they manifestly, we're not ready. It would have been perfectly understandable if Jesus would have pulled back and said, let's give it a little bit more time, but he did not do that. He goes over that hill. He makes that dramatic entrance up that main road, main street into Jerusalem and the events there that are set in motion that can never be undone. There is no turning back. The man with five days to live is approaching his chosen destiny as he moves forward, resolutely into Jerusalem. But before he himself enters the city, verse 29 and 30 tells us that he sends two of his disciples. He says, guys, go into town, you're going to find a cult. I assume he must have given the address. When you get there, I want you to untie him and bring it to me and if anybody asks you what you're doing, tell him the Lord needs it. Now, how would you like to have done that assignment? Just go into town, just go in, you're going to find a cult. Just untie it and take it. This was not standard operating procedure for the disciples, any one that would be for us. We don't know who the disciples were, we're not told, but I can tell you what the conversation was that they went into town. Why us? Why is it always us? Why not Peter, James and John? Peter, James and John get all the glamour assignments. Peter, James and John get to have high-level strategies session with Jesus. Peter, James and John get to go up on the mountain, see him transfigure, they get to meet Moses and Elijah. What do we get? I would steal a baby donkey. That's what we get. That's what the conversation was as they made their way up into town. I kind of wonder as I look at this text, what would have happened if the owner or owners of the cult said, well, you mean the Lord needs it. Get your hands off that cult. He's the Lord who let him get his own cult. In fact, let him make one. It's my cult. What do they call the police? Preachers are paid to ask these hard questions, you understand. I wonder what the charge would be. Grand Theft, Borough, I don't know. Why would you like to draw on that assignment, whoever these boys were? If anyone asks you, why aren't you untying it, tell him the Lord needs it, why didn't the Lord need it? I think about that. Jesus could walk. He walked all over. Jerusalem, Judea and Galilee. He walked hundreds and hundreds, probably thousands of miles in his lifetime, back and forth in and around, Judea, Samaria and Galilee. Why did he need it? He didn't really need the ride. He needed it in fulfillment of scripture. See, over 500 years earlier than this event, the prophet Zechariah had prophesied, Zechariah chapter 9. Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion, shout, daughter of Jerusalem. See your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a cult, the full of a donkey, 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. The Lord their God will save his people on that day as a shepherd saves his flock. The people of Jerusalem shouted, Huzanna, Lord save, Huzanna, the day has finally come, Huzanna, the king who had come like David. In fact, the king who is himself a son of David, it's finally come to deliver his people, Huzanna, glory in the highest. And they came out in mass, and although Luke doesn't mention it, but we know that there's a crowd that followed Jesus from Bethany where he raised Lazarus, and they said, what's next? You would have to, you would have followed him, and then the other crowd, the huge crowd streaming into Jerusalem for the feast of the Passover, so this enormous crowd meets there. And here comes Jesus, riding on a cult, the full of a donkey, up main street, and they thought how to lead the times finally come, we're going to throw off the burden of the yoke of Rome. And this is the man that's going to lead us to freedom. And you know, the unique aspect of Luke's account, Luke's the only tells us, all the enough it was his staunch enemies, his harshest critics, they gave him actually the safest advice. It was the Pharisees, it's a teacher, revoke your disciples, their too loud noise, it's Sunday morning, they're violating all the noise ordinances here in Jerusalem, tell them to pipe down. That would have been the safest thing to do. Jesus would say, it's not like a two out of control here, it's what he does. He says, I'll tell you what, if they get quiet, these rocks, they'll cry out, they'll cry out, Jesus, don't you know your people are supposed to be quiet? Jesus, don't you know your people are supposed to keep that religious stuff for themselves? Jesus, don't you know that stuff doesn't belong out here in the street? Jesus, that's religious stuff, it's be kept in the temple. Tell your people to pipe down and be quiet and do what they're told. Jesus says, not my people, don't do that. Jesus is people, we don't pipe down. We're not going to be quiet, we're going to sit in the corner and do what we're told and keep this religious stuff for the house of worship because that's not what the followers of Christ do. We go silent, the rocks will cry out, you know that great black gospel number ain't going to let no rock out, praise me? Doug had that for next week, we'll buy the robes and the whole bit of it. And God's people are not going to be quiet and if we do, the rocks are going to cry out. The message of Palm Sunday, the message of that first Palm Sunday and down the centuries that sooner or later, sooner or later, everyone and everything will bow down at the feet of Jesus, lift up your hands, be lifted up, let the redeemed declare the love, the love come down from heaven's gate to kiss the earth with hope and grace. We sing, who is this king of glory, the Lord strong and mighty, he is the king of glory. Now several years ago, I think is the last time I preached through Luke's account, I made a comment about how it would be interesting to find out what the testimony of the rocks down through the ages would have been. I'm resistant to temptation to say that would have been a rock concert had the stone's cry. I didn't say, I told you I resisted. I would have been a concert I would like to have heard, but what would the testimony be of the stone's down through the ages, and then I don't think I ever pursued it. So for just a few minutes, if you will, I'd like to have you think with me about the testimony of the stones, testimony of the rocks. There's one, we read about in Genesis chapter 22, you know the story of Abraham and Isaac. Abraham is an old man and God calls him out to follow this promised land, even though he's old and childless. God says that his name is Abraham at that time, which means exalted father. He's going to change his name to Abraham, which means the father of nations. That's ironic enough, but God says, you're going to have a son, Abraham. You can have a son. And through him, you're going to have a multitude of sons. You're going to have as many sons and daughters as the stars in the sky and the sand in the seas. I'll go and come to that one son and his name is Isaac. Isaac means laughter. I know it was laughter in the house, Sarah and her old age gave birth to Isaac, and the Genesis 22 tells us how Abraham is an older man now, probably about a hundred, and his son Isaac, a young man, somewhere around 13, and God calls Abraham, and he says, Abraham, your am Lord, take now your son, your only son whom you love Isaac, and you go up to the land of Mariah to a mountain I'm going to tell you about. I want you to sacrifice him, there's a burnt offering. Your son, Isaac, the child of the promise, his name means laughter. Now that laughter is going to die in sorrow because you take him up and sacrifice him against all reason and all human instinct, Abraham takes his son with the mountain when they get to the place where there's this stone, and legend tells us that stone is today where in Jerusalem the mosque, the dome of the rock is built on that rock, and that what's left of Solomon's temple is just close by. Legend tells us that's the very rock where Abraham took Isaac. We don't know, it doesn't really matter, but if it was that rock, that rock would have seen that old man, that sad, despondent old man, gather the wood along with his son and put it on top of that rock, and bind his son, and lay him down on that altar, and that rock would have seen that old man take a knife in his hand, a flint knife, a stone knife, and he would raise the high above his son, and just before he could plunge it into the heart of his son to complete the sacrifice, that rock would have heard and seen the angel of the Lord, it's in Abram, and Abram don't do it, don't do it, God is seeing, God knows, he knows you're willing to do this very thing, and because you would not have withheld even your own son, Abraham, God is going to bless you, and that rock would have said right at that time, over there in the thicket there was a ram caught by his horns, and when Abraham said to his son, the Lord himself would provide the lamb, my son, for the sacrifice, there it was, and that rock would have known, it would have been witnessed to the time, on a place where Abraham called it Jehovah Jaira, the Lord will provide, that rock would testify that even in the most trying of situations, that God is faithful, somebody says you have it, come on and that was a long, long time ago, that was 4,000 years ago and half world away, you don't know about my problems, you don't know what I'm facing right now, and you're right I don't, some of you I do, but for many of you I don't know what you're facing, I wouldn't presume to say that it's easy, I wouldn't be glib about it, I don't know this, about seven years ago at the youth for Christ's banquet, I know some of you went last night hope some more of you are going tonight and the rest of you are coming to even your worship, about seven years ago I think it was, what I see has their main speaker that at the banquet, I remember they had a Darryl Scott, you probably don't know who Darryl Scott is, but you heard about his daughter Rachel, Rachel Scott, she was one of 13 people shot in cold blood by Eric Harris and Dylan Cleveland on April 20th, 1999 in Columbine High School, and Darryl Scott spoke to us very movingly of his daughter's testimony and things she had written and left behind, I got it prepared her for her death and I got to continue to use her after her death, and after the banquet was over, I had the privilege of sitting at a table and just talking with Darryl for about a half hour, incredible man, incredible man, and I said to him, Darryl, I'm a dad, I have four kids, I got three girls, how do you get through something like that, how do you get through the brutal murder of your own daughter in census, cold blood like that, and he said to me and I quote, he gives you grace enough for each day, Darryl Scott could say that, and Abraham could, Abraham could experience that, that stone could tell us God is faithful even the most trying times, there's another stone that could tell something about God, you can read about in Exodus 33 and 34, see Moses was God's anointed leader and he was the hero, the deliverer of the nation of Israel, he'd let them faithfully, courageously out of Egypt through that wilderness, and he had led them through times of trial and plague and disobedience, in fact there was a time Moses would go up on that mountain from time to time to meet with God, various mountains, and one of the times while he was away, the people down below got antsy, where's this Moses fella, we don't know what's become of him, maybe we need another God, and he took all their jewelry off, they melted it down, they made a big gold cow, and they sat around and danced around and worshipped it, God was not happy with his people to put him mildly, he does not take such disobedience and such idolatry lightly, so God punishes people, and then he told Moses it was time for him to pick up, move on, pack the things and move on toward the promised land, and Moses said, yes sir, I'll do that, but a favor please before we go, Lord, show me your glory, show me who you are, no miracles, no plagues, no signs, no pillars of cloud and pillars of fire, show me who you are, I won't see you face to face before I go any farther, and God said to Moses, Moses, if I showed you my face, you couldn't handle it, you would die, but I'll tell you what I will do because you are my chosen leader, I'll tell you what I will do, I'm going to hide you in the cleft of this rock, and I'm going to wrap my hand around you, and when my glory passes by, you can't see it, Moses, it would undo you, but as my glory passes by, you get to see the back of God, and you hear me proclaim my name, in fact I quoted a little while ago, the pastoral prayer, the Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, abounding in love and faithfulness, showing mercy to a thousand generations, not leaving the guilty unpunished, he will punish the sins of the fathers down to the third and the fourth generation, but he will extend his mercy to a thousand generations, and if that stone were Moses stood, if that stone could speak, it would tell us that it stood witness as a suddenly very small, very frail man, it stood exposed to part of the glory of God, it stood there trembling inside his broken shell, and I'm sure that rock would say that it would have either exploded or disintegrated itself, had not its creator wrapped his hand around it, and kept it together in the presence of his glory, rock of ages cleft from me, let me hide myself, and that's where it comes from, if that rock had talked, it would testify that even when we're disobedient, God can be dependent upon to be compassionate and gracious, there's another stone that I have an interesting story to tell, I'm not going to take much time on this one, you can read about it in 1 Samuel 17, that's been a little shepherd boy named David, went out to meet an arrogant blasphemous, idolatrous philistine by the name of Goliath from a place called Gath, and Goliath came out and was mocking the God of Israel, because he was so huge, so fierce to people of Israel, even the soldiers were quaking, nobody wanted to challenge him, and David came up and said I'll do it, I don't need your armor, I don't need your spear, I need a sling, I need five stones, I'd love to know the story of that little rock, that first rock that went right through that thick forehead of Goliath, and I'm sure if that rock could have overheard Goliath's thoughts, his last thoughts as he crumpled to the ground would have been, maybe I should have shown a little more respect to the God of Israel and his servant David, and if that rock could speak, it would testify that the God is holy, and he is not to be mocked, he does not suffer those who insult him and blaspheme him lightly, but he shows great patience towards sinners who turn him while they can, which brings back to now this passage in the triumphal entry, who come to these stones that are lining the street, going up Main Street into Jerusalem, on that Sunday before Passover, the year that we call 33 AD, those little rocks that Jesus said they would pitch in and cry out at the people were silent, you know rocks are pretty old, and they don't move around very much, so my guess is that those rocks would have probably been right there in that same area around when Abraham went up that mountain to sacrifice Isaac, and they would have seen him make that sorrowful trek up the hillside, those rocks might have been there when Joshua took Jerusalem back from the Amorites, and they would have been there when David came in and made Jerusalem his city, see the city was there before, but David made it his city, his Jerusalem, could have been somewhere around there when poor Aza put out his hand when the Ark of the Covenant began to tumble off that ox cart, because they were being careless with it, poor Aza stuck out his hand and touched the Ark and God struck him dead for his irreverence, might have been right, right around there, those rocks might have witnessed the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians, in 587 BC, they might have watched the flames of the city burning just over that hill, they might have seen those first pitiful stragglers coming back from exile in 539 BC as they came back to what was left of the city called Jerusalem, maybe you've seen Nehemiah when he and his band of heroic courageous Rebuilders came back and began to rebuild Jerusalem somewhere on 445 BC, they might have seen Nehemiah taking stones, maybe some of their cousins if rocks have cousins, and taking them up into the city to rebuild those walls in 53 days, those rocks might have witnessed a lot of remarkable, significant pivotal historic events, but they had never seen anything like this, they had never seen anything like the Son of God, Israel's Messiah writing on the cult of a donkey with palm spread before him and cloakstone on the ground and shouts of Huzanna, Huzanna and the highest glory to God, Huzanna to the Son of David, they had never seen anything like a king writing to his coronation outside the city walls on an old rugged cross, and if those stones had dried out, they would have testified that even when we were lost, like sheep without a shepherd, the gods sent his son to be the sacrificial lamb to take away the sins of the world, if you're here for the first time this morning, or maybe it's been a while, I just haven't been listening, the testimony of God's Word is very simple, God created you and He made you in His image, that means a lot, but one of the things it means in particular, He made you to know Him, and to be in a living and vital relationship with Him, everybody lives forever, everybody lives forever, the question is the one of location, location, location, you live in the presence of God forever or apart from the presence of God forever, the prospect is so horrifying, I don't want to talk about this morning, it's Palm Sunday, but the scripture is clear, you're made in God's image, you're made to be in a relationship with Him, that your sins and mine have separated from God, and that the wages of sin is death, death eternal, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ, his son, and that we can be in that right, be into a right relationship with God, and we can live with Him now and forever by His grace to faith and Christ alone, it is not about good works, it is not about church attendance or Bible study or prayer, I'm for all those things, it's about whether or not you know Jesus as your Lord and Savior, because the final exam is one question and His past fail. Do you know Jesus is Lord? That's the testimony of this book, there's one other rock that I'd love to have been able to talk to, we'll talk more about that rock next week, you can read about this one in Matthew 28 and Mark 16 and Luke 24 and in John 20, that's the stone that they rolled in there to seal the tomb in which the lifeless body of Jesus was placed, and of all the amazing things that those stones saw, that stone saw something no one else had ever seen, it was unlike anything else when Jesus of Nazareth who suffered under Pontius Pilate was crucified and dead and buried to send it into hell, we just affirm that on the third day rose again from the dead by an act of power unparalleled in anything that it ever happened on this planet or anywhere else in the universe, and that stone would have seen that happen, it would have seen those grave clothes suddenly unoccupied, it would have felt a violent earthquake, it would have found itself the focus of a great deal of angelic attention as it felt itself being rolled away out of that opening of that tomb and it would have seen the former occupant of that tomb, once very dead, nail scars in his hands and his feet, but now very much alive who would have seen him vacate the premises and changed everything about life on this planet from that day and for ever more, and that's what was coming down, the man with five days to live as he approached Jerusalem, that faithful Palm Sunday morning, can I just talk family for a minute here this family, we've suffered some losses over the last few weeks, haven't we, three of our family members are extended family, we've got others who we know are in extreme circumstances physically, the truth of the matter is, we're all on final approach, we're all on final approach, some of you will have decades and decades, some of us not so many, we're all on final approach and it comes down to one thing, and one thing only, when our day comes, we stand before the Lord, it's whether or not you know Christ's Lord, that's what Easter's all about, W.E. Sankster was a great British preacher, one of the best known in all of London in the 40s and 50s, it was in the 1950s, he attracted an incurable physical disease that caused progressive muscular atrophy, his legs became useless and the paralysis spread up his body and finally he began to lose his voice or preacher, lose his voice, so when he couldn't talk anymore, he threw himself into praying, especially for missions, and he wrote and wrote letters to family and friends, to missionaries, and on the final Easter morning, his last Easter before he died, just weeks before he died, he wrote to his daughter Margaret and he wrote this, it is terrible to wake up on Easter morning and have no voice to shout, he is risen, but it would still be more terrible to have a voice and not want to shout. You got anything to shout about this morning? Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we have looked this morning into your word that contains truths beyond our wildest imaginations, Father, this is not something man would create, this is not the religion we create, the one we're God himself takes upon flesh and dies for our sins, it's mind boggling. The Father, we believe it to be true, we affirm it as such and we ask this morning that you would help us to live it out today, this week, this holy week, the Lord for that person, that man, woman, a young person who's here today, who has never ever come to terms with who he is, who she is before you, who you are, and who Jesus is, I pray that today would be the day of salvation. We ask these things in the name of our risen Lord and Savior Jesus. Amen. Thank you again for being here with us this morning. We invite you back this evening for evening worship six o'clock, Thursday evening, six o'clock family dinner, seven o'clock service of communion here. Be back here next Sunday morning, Easter Sunday morning for Christian education and the other activities that will attend our Easter celebration. Now see the Lord's benediction. Go now in the love of God the Father, the grace and mercy of God the Son, the fellowship and companionship of God, the Holy Spirit, and live the life. Amen.