Exeter Temple
Message notes – Palm Sunday 20th March 2016
Bible Reading: Matthew
20:29-21:1
Theme: A cry for hope
Examples of loud cries to God.
-
Jacob. (Genesis
32:22-32)
-
Jesus and Lazarus. (John 11:38-44)
What kind of things do
people cry out to God about?
1. Personal help for their need
-
Psalms
“Evening and morning and noon I cry out in distress and he hears my
voice.” Psalm
55:17
-
Hannah (1 Samuel 1-20)
“In bitterness of soul Hannah wept much and prayed to the Lord.”
(1 Samuel 1:10)
-
Two
blind men (Matthew 20:29-34)
“Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us!”
(v 30)
The key to the lifting of despair and the beginning
of hope is direction. Hannah pointed her
bitterness of soul towards the Lord.
God heard her cry and granted her what she asked of
Him. Jesus was not just moved by the
depression or self-pity of the two blind men. He moved because of their
willingness to come to Him.
Both Hannah and the blind men cried out persistently. It isn’t that
we need to badger God into helping us but that our persistence reveals
What have you
prayed about persistently?
What is your
one prayer?
What is the one
thing that you go back to time and time again?
2. A cry for
salvation
A people in slavery longed for freedom and looked
to God to send a Saviour.
“The Egyptians mistreated us and our fathers but when we cried out to
the Lord he heard our cry and sent an angel and brought us out of Egypt.” (Numbers
20:16)
Moses was told that God
is acting because He has heard the cry of Israel. The simple act of their
crying out to God provoked the Lord to action.
“I have heard the groaning of the people of Israel, whom the
Egyptians hold as slaves, and I have remembered my covenant.” (Exodus 6:5)
When Jesus rode into Jerusalem and the crowds
shouted Hosanna, like their ancestors in Egypt they were crying for salvation.
Hosanna means save now!
In the Hebrew "Hosanna"
always comes from one who is desperate, about a problem which can only be
resolved by the intervention of the King. The crying out of Hosanna was a cry to God not only to save but to send
them the Saviour promised by the prophets. The people didn’t fully understand
how Jesus would fulfil His role as Saviour, but they were incredibly aware of
their need to be saved.
While many on Palm Sunday probably cried out for
political salvation we now can make an even more accurate application, and cry
out for deliverance from oppressive regime of the evil one, Satan.
Is this not a time when
it is right for us to shout Hosanna? Save our marriages, save our families,
save our children, save our communities! In the midst of the biggest migration
of people in Europe because of war and persecution, since the second world war,
is it not time to cry Hosanna? But rather
than articulate the cry Hosanna, we often stay silent.
"In the
midst of a generation screaming for answers, Christians are stuttering." Howard
Hendricks
We might not have all the answers about the many
problems in our world but we can cry out to God.
3. A cry for
revival
There is a cry that comes because we see ourselves
and we know that it is us that needs to be changed, to be free. The cry is for our own revival as the people
of God.
In the face of the pilgrims of Jerusalem, shouting
and crying out for salvation, Jesus went to the Temple, the centre of Israel’s
identity, faith and worship and turned it upside down.
When we cry out to God, we must never be surprised
if the first thing he does to bring change to our circumstance or to our world
is to challenge us to change.
Jim Parisi states that we need revival when any or
all of the following things are true.
-
When there
is complacency, self-satisfaction or satisfaction with the status quo.
-
When we
become a self-serving and not a God serving people.
When there is a lack of concern for the lost.
-
When we have
an unforgiving spirit.
-
When we are
fill of pride.
-
If in any
way were are spiritually less that we were.
“It doesn’t require us to be courageous or wise, pure or particularly
holy. We don’t have to be smart, or eloquent. Crying out only requires
one thing of us, honesty. Our cry to God, just like Israel’s, flows from an
honest assessment of who we are before God. It requires us to be honest
about our flaws and weaknesses, about our limits and sins. When we cry
out we confess ourselves, we confess who we are and what we cannot do on our
own. And so, it requires us to be honest with ourselves as we speak to
the one who already knows the truth about us anyway.”
Steven Hovater
“Will you not revive us again
that your people may rejoice in you?
Show us your unfailing love O Lord and grant us your salvation.” Psalm
85:6
Blessings
Alan and Carol
No comments:
Post a Comment