On Palm Sunday we celebrate the day when Jesus revealed to Jerusalem that He came to be her King. Yet, as we have been learning in recent weeks, the nature of His Kingdom was different than expected. Of the many qualities Jesus unveiled during His triumphant entry, we see His gentleness, grief and glory. All three of these attributes beckon a response from all who bow to King Jesus.
Sermons by Dean Wertz (Page 34)
After announcing “The time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand” Jesus loved uninvited, overlooked, unwanted, unwelcome, disregarded, ignored, marginalized, unnoticed, discounted, passed over, sidelined, unappreciated, undervalued, misunderstood, misinterpreted, misjudged, devalued, ordinary, sick, demonized, sinful, shame-filled people. What a kingdom. What a King!
When heaven is silent we often wonder, “Where is God?” and “Does He care?” Beginning in the mid 400’s BC God’s voice was suspended from Israel and many gave up hope. Yet everything changed in 5 or 6 BC when God announced and then sent His promised Anointed One through a virgin in David’s town. Some received Him, others did not. This message travels from the days of Caesar Augustus to our own because He came not only to be with 1st century Jews but He came to be with you as well.
Slavery, hunger, sex trafficking, addictions, broken relationships… Have you noticed how many things on our globe are not as they should be? When God decides it is time to renovate a portion of earth so it looks more like heaven He typically does so through His children. Nehemiah wept, prayed and worked with God and others to overturn the “great trouble and shame” in Jerusalem. He embraced God’s assignment for his generation. Will you listen and trust God to do the same for yours?
Esther is the only book in the Bible that does not mention the name of God. Yet, behind the scenes, God is clearly at work fulfilling His vision to protect His people through whom His Son, the “seed” of Abraham, will come to bless all nations. God does this work through two of His children, Esther and Mordecai, who risk their lives to join in His mission. Their examples challenge us to ask, “How can I invest my life for the kingdom of God?”
Some stories stir us to revel in God’s epic storyline. The account of God’s children returning to Jerusalem after 70 years in exile to rebuild God’s temple is one such story. Why did God command Zerubbabel to rebuild His temple in 538 BC? Why did this house of God pale in comparison to the previous one built by Solomon? In this message we reflect on the glory of God’s temples past, present & future.
God loves His children whom He made to delight in Him and shine for Him. Yet sometimes God’s sons and daughters drift away and seek to evade Him. Just as God went to great lengths to bring Israel back to Himself so He has gone to great lengths to pursue us prodigals as well. Sometimes God even brings discipline into our lives in order to bring us back into communion with Him so we can join Him in serving in His harvest as we (like Israel) were made to do.
As we continue our journey through the Bible, we now meet Isaiah. Isaiah had a rare vision of God. Along with Isaiah we revel in some of the astounding realities which God revealed about Himself as well as God’s invitation to join in making His glories known among all nations throughout all generations.
In 931 B.C. God’s people tore into two nations and sometimes God’s people still divide today. Schisms destroy our joy and our ability to fulfill God’s call to bless all the families of the earth. With so much at stake, God reveals in I Kings 12-16 that relational division is actually the result of one or more people drifting away from God and His ways. For all who know the angst of relational conflict and division, in Christ there is help and hope.
In our journey through The Story, this week’s chapter about Solomon is entitled, “The King who had it All.” Solomon did have it all the moment He began his relationship with God because Solomon had God. In addition, God blessed him to overflowing in the years that followed. Like the appetite of a glutton and the cravings of a drunkard the heart of man is never satisfied. Most of us spend years chasing pleasures that were never meant to be our portion. It appears that at the end of Solomon’s life he finally realized that God is enough. Do not waste another day another day of your life – God is enough!