Well, if you've been attending Clarity gatherings over the years, you know that around this time of the year, we dedicate our gatherings on focusing on scripture that prepares our hearts for an annual celebration of Jesus's rec resurrection, a, a holiday that we all know as what? Easter. Easter. And this year we're going to kind of follow suit, what we've done over the.

Goodness gracious. This will be our ninth. This will be our ninth Easter ninth. No, it's no, our ninth Easter. Cuz the first year we are, we are celebrating year 10 coming up. Oh, I can't believe that. Oh, goodness gracious. But ninth, this is our ninth, our ninth Easter. Then this year we're gonna take the next five week weeks leading up to Easter, starting from what is commonly referred to as Jesus' Triumph.

Entry into Jerusalem and we're gonna follow that storyline of Jesus that eventually leads us to God's greatest display of love. Now, what is God's greatest display of love? It's this and I, and cuz I don't want you to miss this. It's took a lot of time to really think about writing this out and I want you to hear this.

This is God's greatest display of love. God allowing his one and only son to die. An atoning death for our sins on the cross so that you and I could be reconciled to God and experience all the benefits and promises of being part of God's kingdom by responding to elite to Jesus as king. This is the greatest display of God's love him sending his Son in.

In. In other parts of the scripture it says this and this, how is how you will know what love? God sends his son to be an atoning sacrifice for you. This is God's greatest display of love. And if you don't get anything else out of this message today, I want you to, I want you to know this. I want you to see this.

Maybe if you wanna even take a, take your phone out and take a picture, take a screenshot. Maybe I'll, maybe we'll post this, but this is God's greatest display of love. You need to know this. The God send his Son so that you and I could have the opportunity to participate in the realities of the kingdom of God by pledging our allegiance to Jesus Christ as king.

Now, if your follower of Jesus, I hope that each week reveals an aspect about Christ's heart and his sacrifice that invites you and me. To hopefully a renewed devotion to Jesus in maybe surprising ways. I know that's kind of audacious to say, especially if you've been around church for a while.

There's not, nothing new you've seen, but I hope, here's what I hope that is. We travel through the scriptures together from Jerusalem to the cross that maybe you'll encounter in the scriptures, Jesus, in a way that, I don't know, maybe surprises you. In fact, I believe as we turn our eyes upon Jesus, that's what the series is about.

Over the next several weeks, what we learned through the scriptures, I believe it does have the power. If we let, it has the power to challenge us and then to empower us to put aside our selfish desires and maybe. This is offensive, misguided understandings about who God is and maybe what he wants to accomplish in and through our lives.

I'm hoping, I'm hoping it's that. Now, if you're not someone who believes everything you've heard about Jesus in the Bible, I'm, I'm at least going to assume that if you're here today, And maybe, maybe that's not the extreme to where you're at. Maybe maybe you, you, you are just someone who's is wrestling, you're wrestling with this idea of, of Jesus in the Bible.

You do kind of believe it, at least for right now, but you're, you feel you're kind of on the edge of, like, I don't, I'm not really sure. What I hope is that, well, first of all, I'm, I'm gonna assume that you're here today because you're at least curious, at least curious. To know what makes people who want to repurpose their rhythms and reorient their lives around this person named Jesus, that you're at least curious to find out like why and how and why people would do that.

Or at a minimum, you're, you're here because someone invited you and they promised you lunch or something like that. But either way, I'm glad that you're here and I hope that you join us over the next few weeks cuz this is what we're gonna be learning. We're gonna be learning. In these next few weeks, we're gonna be learning about, here's, here's an interesting thing we're gonna be learning over the next few weeks about what motivated these early believers of Jesus to go from this, this small cellular group who were quite frankly led by people like Peter, who were supposed to be bold, but.

At the auspice of the accusation of being a follower of Jesus, he was like, no, not me. They went from that to the kind of people who would go to the ends of the Earth and who would even die for Jesus. If you wanna know what made these people live that kind of life, this is what we're gonna be looking at over the next five weeks.

Now, that's a hard sell, I know, but I'm, I'm hoping that just the scripture. Would at least give you a picture of like what made these early followers of Jesus be the kind of people they were and live the kind of life that they lived. So I wanna invite you to join us over the next five weeks. Have you found Luke Chapter 19?

Hopefully you found Luke Chapter 19. If you haven't found it, there is a table of contents in front of every paper, Bible, and Google usually works. Luke 19. So we're gonna read our passage together and then we'll dive into a convers. About how what we are reading this morning challenges us to turn our eyes upon Jesus.

Luke chapter 19, starting at verse 28,

when he, Jesus had said these things, he went on ahead going up to Jerusalem as he approached Bethpage and Bethany at the place called the Mount of Olive. He sent two of the disciples and said, go into the village ahead of you. As you enter it, you will find a young donkey tied there on which no one has ever sat, untie it and bring it.

If anyone asks, why are you untying it? Say this the Lord needs it. So those who were sent left and found, it was just as he told them. It's so funny. It even seems here that Luke is kind of surprised that things were just, as Jesus said they would be. But things are often just as he says it will be as they were untying the young donkey, its owners said to them, why are you untying the donkey?

The Lord, what'd he say? Needs it . The Lord needs it. And they said, And then they brought it to Jesus after throwing their clothes on the donkey. They helped Jesus get on it. As he was going along, they were spreading their clothes on the road. Now he came near the path down the Mount of Olives, and the whole crowd of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with the loud voice for all the miracles they have seen.

Plus is the king who comes in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven. In glory in the highest. Would you join me as they pray? Father in heaven, thank you for your word, which is not only a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path, but it is that which helps expose our lives of the areas that are incongruent with your standards, and then it gives us light and hope for how we can live a.

According to your will and your way. So Holy Spirit this morning, would you move in our hearts? Would you move among us and lead us with your kindness to repentance? And this we pray, Lord, our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. May your kingdom come, you will be done on earth. As it is in heaven, give us today our daily bread.

Forgive those who trespass against us and forgive our trespasses. Yours is a kingdom in the glory forever. Amen.

Maybe , maybe it was specifically the. I grew up in, or, or maybe it was the specific kind of era of worship that I grew up in in the eighties. Anyone, anyone go to church in the eighties where you're in church around the eighties? Like there's some interesting music that happened in churches in the eighties and the eighties was very interesting.

You had Maranatha worship y'all remember, and in fact, there's a great movie coming out. Jesus people documents the whole Calvary Chapel movement. Jesus Revolution. Okay, if some of you might know this, but I'm, I'm actually, or Calvary Chapel, ordained pastor. That's where I kind of got. So I'm really excited.

I wanna see that movie. But Maranatha Praise came outta this whole thing, but not all churches were doing that. Churches were singing some other kind of songs that were like a little bit newer than hymns. And the church I grew up in, there was a song that I, I think we sang it like every week in Kids' Church, but it was also a song we sang in like adult church, which now that I think about it, I'm like, how did we pull that off?

That's just kind of weird. And, and I don't know if it, maybe it was like my church they had, they had, there was this, there was this, I don't know, fascination with everything that like sounded Jewish. And so they had this song like, and went like this, and we go, king of Kings and Lord oh, Lords glory. Ah, king of Kings and Lord oh, Lords.

Glory. Glory Jesus principles. Glory, Jesus Principe, glory. Yeah. Y'all went to the same weird church. Okay. That's awesome, . All right. So, and if you didn't, if you don't, I have no idea what I was saying. Your heart if all you know is how great is our God. That that was a, that was a, that was a zenith of like, there you go.

There you go. That inate. Jesus salate. Alright, anyways, stop. Wow. Calm down. Not in the message. Hold on, let's get back. King of King's, Lord of Lord's glory. Halle Leh. Why didn't even bring that up? I don't know. Anytime I could sing, I get it. But today's passage has to really do with this theme of Jesus' King, right?

And today's passage of scripture. If you follow along and read any kind of Bible scholars on this passage of scripture, they'll tell you that this scripture, this passage of scripture points to one of the, it's really one of the most overt and clear establishments of the theological doctrine of Jesus.

Kingship that Jesus is the king of kings. The question is, why does like Jesus need to be king? Like why does, why does Jesus need to be king? Well, in order to understand that I think it's important for us to kind of take a history trip back to the beginning. To the beginning, because in the beginning, God created what?

The heavens and the earth, and he created everything within the earth and everything. Both in heaven and in earth. Were united with God. And most importantly, God was not just in unity with mankind, but he lived. He walked with mankind. But then something tragic happened, right? The unity of heaven and earth was separated by sin because of our desire to seek autonomy.

we bought into the lie that, no, no, God doesn't have our best interest in mind. In fact, God knows that we could ourselves become Gods. And if you look very carefully, In all of our lives, even your own life, when we fallen short of God, glorious, haven't, haven't, haven't we been just seeking some version of being the Lord of our own life?

Like we know what's best. We know what's best. Despite this, though, God promised to his people that he would return. That's good news. And he would extinguish sin and evil from all of creation. And so God starts this story of redemption through a man by the name of, does anybody know He's, we call him father even though he's not a priest.

Father Abraham, who What had many sons? Had many sons had Father Abraham, no, I'm not gonna sing it. You thought I was going to Gotcha. So God starts the story. Listen, God starts the story of redemption. If you wanna know like why a Abraham was important, God starts the story of redemption through this man by the name of Abraham and his whole family.

And God calls this family of Abraham to be representatives of God to the whole world. That was the purpose that they would display the reality of God's grace and his kingdom to the world. That's what they were called to do. Now, the Old Testament is a collection of writing is that chronicle this family of Abraham doing good and then failing and then repenting, and then doing good, and then failing and then repenting.

But even though they continued to fail, God never failed to keep his promise of sending. The so-called snake crushing Messiah King, that through whom salvation would be offered to the entire world and until Jesus' birth was announced to Mary by the angel Gabriel in Luke chapter one, the people of God lived in hope, that one day God would send the Messiah who had once again, His established God's kingdom on Earth.

So that like everything that was in the beginning would be as God himself declared after each day of creation was done. It is good. They hoped for this. They longed for this messiah, this king, so that a new kingdom could be established here on Earth. So why do we need Jesus to be king? What's so important about this idea of Jesus?

Be in King. Well, when Luke writes what he writes here in Luke chapter 19, specifically in this first part, verses 28 to 30, listen, he is purposefully utilizing familiar Old Testament prophecies about this promised Messiah King, specifically language used by the prophet Zechariah. And here's what you understand.

Look, I'm about to read this to you. It's, it's right here. This has written hundreds of years. Can you not hear the reverberations of what Zechariah was saying in the realities of what we're reading here today? And this is what Zechariah says. Rejoice o people of Zion as he's talking about this coming Messiah shot in triumph.

Oh, people of Jerusalem. Look, your king is coming to you. He is righteous and victorious, yet he is humble. Riding on a donkey, and as if though like Zechariah was challenged to make the prophecy even harder, it's like, whoa. Anybody can write on a donkey. No, it'll be on a young donkey bet. Let's see that happen.

All right. And this idea that Jesus' king is something that the average church person is familiar with. Like we sing about it like Jesus, king. King. You know, if you grew up in the eighties like I did, you sang about it, king Lord Lord's glory. Thank you very much. Hallelu. Yeah, . But sometimes listen, but sometimes listen, the average church person knows that Jesus is king.

But listen, I, I won. I wonder, I wonder if. The extent that Jesus is king is only in the instances when we sing about him in worship. Like I, I wonder sometimes if the only time that Jesus is king, both cognitively as well as audibly, is when we gather for worship and I make you sing about it. And listen, I've been part of church for a really long time.

And if I, I've had my fair share of, of church people from all kinds of denominations. I was, I was born, you know, Filipino, I was born Catholic. Right? Every Filipino is, you're Catholic. You're automatically Catholic. You don't, don't even have a choice. I still have pictures for my christening. Right. And you know, just a couple weeks ago, everyone from my dad's island celebrated, sinulog and we just, you know, danced around with the baby.

Anyway, some of you don't get it, but anyways, you have to be there. Right. So I get this, I, I, I grew up in that and then we grew up Church of the Brethren, and then we became Pentecostal. And then I went to college and I'm like, I'm Pentecostal, but I don't really fit the Pentecostal mold. Oh, it's Calvary Chapel.

I kind of like that verse by verse teaching. And then I grew in theology and then I said, Ooh, I really like theology. And then I found these free church people who were all piper heads and I was like, Ooh, yeah, John Piper, this is really good. I'm feeding. I'm growing. I'm growing, and then all of a sudden became a Baptist preacher, mostly because they're the ones who would help us plant this church.

And so I've come full circle and then I've, I've done all these different kinds of things. I've, I've been all parts of all kinds of churches and I know church people. And if there's one thing I've noticed about church people in America, and I've been a pastor in Florida, in California, here in the Midwest, I've been literally all of America.

If there's one thing I've noticed about church people in America is that there are many who have tried to pair Christianity with their ideas and idols of nationalism.

Christians have paired this idea of like, I'm Christian, I am a C, I'm a C H R I S T I A N, I have C H R I S T in my H E A R T and I will L I V E E T E R N A L L Y.

And they tried to mix that with, and I'm proud to be an American, where least I know, right? And they've put together this version of Christianity that I, I'm just not sure that God would've really been a fan of.

In fact, I would, I would go as far to say it's, it's kind of repulsive and this repulsive marriage of nationalism and Christianity that has been. Largely responsible for what I, well, not, not what I call the sociology. Everyone knows, understand the great resignation over the past couple years, right?

The great resignation. This move of people resigning from their jobs, moving on, doing. But in the churches there has also been a great resignation. There's been a great resignation of people who have said, you know what? I'm done. I'm done. I'm done. Part of it has to do with the way. People have seen the church double down on their idols of nationalism and mixed with Christianity, and others have done it just because maybe they're deconstructing and they're, there's, they were given the opportunity and the permission not to be part of fellowship, not to, to be in community with other people.

So there was literally no one able. You know, that thing you just said, . I called BS on that . So all of us over Covid were able to live in our own, we're gonna go to church at home, have our own little ideas, have our own little theological thoughts without anybody calling us on our stuff. And we're able to, and then we, we, we emerged outta Covid going like, I'm pretty smart.

I've got this theology thing figured out in many ways. Look, I, I get it. Sometimes when I look at Christianity in America and what it's come to represent in pop culture, right? Goodness gracious. Sometimes I find myself saying, I love Jesus, but I don't think I wanna be a part of that.

Like, if I'm being honest with you, like as a pastor, I get it sometimes I look at. The, the church in, in this western world, and I, and I go, I don't know if I, I don't know if I really wanna be a part of that,

but, but what, what if, what if we could recapture though? What if we could,

what if we could rediscover what living life under Jesus's rule and reign as king looks like? What, what if we could reimagine our lives where, where Jesus is king and though we're maybe earthly citizens of this country called America, ultimately the citizenship of our heart, our allegiance is found with the king and the kingdom that is not of this earth.

Like what if we could imagine. that, what would it look like? I think Luke begins to paint that picture for us here in this passage. Look at what Luke records happening after Jesus. The king gives instructions that one Bible scholar says are laden with royal significance, preparing for the more explicit affirmation of Jesus's kingly status and what follows.

I just love what really sparked people do with words. Here's what Luke says, verse 32. So those who were sent left and found it just as he has. . And as they were untying, the young donkey, it's owners said to them, why are you untying the donkey? And they said, the Lord needs it. They said, and then they brought it to Jesus.

And after throwing their clothes on the donkey, they helped Jesus get on it. I, some of you, this feel like I'm pushing it, but listen, I promise them not. There is imagery here being painted by Luke. Purposeful imagery. Jesus said, do this. By the way, as I say what you're gonna do, you good Jews already gonna know that it comes from Zechariah chapter nine.

You're gonna know. You're gonna know. Cuz I did add the young Colt thing. Like just in case. If you're wondering like, I wonder if he's quoting Zechariah Knight. Oh, you said young cult. Remember Bet

and. That makes sense that they would do what Jesus said because they were followers of Jesus, right? They had given their allegiance to Jesus for all intents and purposes. So when asked to do something by their king, they did it. And if the church is gonna be filled with people who Jesus is, their king.

Then we who are the church must be people who change our allegiance from the things of this world

to the God who made the world. This is because when Jesus is king, we change our allegiance. In other words, we, we, we turn from living life our way and now we. God's way, which is, by the way, if you've been with me for a long time, that is a picture of what? Repentance. Repentance literally is a word that means turning

Think you break it down. It means, it means I was going this way and nope, I'm gonna go this way.

And I could imagine that as the disciples carried out Jesus instructions, there could have been some temptation maybe to change the plans to fit more of a narrative that they hoped for. If you understand what was going on here at the time, there was this, this real, there's a disconnect. Jesus said, I was king.

And then disciples were, yes, you are king, you're Messiah. And then as Jesus talked about his humility and what he was doing on earth, it, it, it seemed like if you follow the disciples, like they just didn't get it. They're like, oh yeah, okay. Alright. So what are you gonna. Okay. Okay. All right. Okay. Love neighbors.

Okay. That's great. Okay. Forgive. Yep. Yeah, I love forgiveness. All right. Okay. When are we gonna take down the Romans? . Let's do it. Let's do it. And so there were a lot of this going on with Jesus disciples and I, and I could assume that there might have been a temptation to change the plans as they've been instructed by Jesus and to follow what Jesus did.

Maybe chance just to tweak it a little bit and just to kind of maybe add a little bit of spin on, you know, we're still kind of doing what Jesus told us to do, but we're gonna put out a little spin on it, like, you know, I know Jesus means well, you know, he's that super humble guy, like, you know, but you know, we need to help him cuz he would never go get a white horse for himself.

But I know Jesus, let's go get him a white horse so he can ride in a Jerusalem like that conquering king that we've been looking for. But is that what they do? No, that's not what they do. When caught unkind untying the, the cult of the nochi, they, they could have reacted it in any way that they wanted.

They could have said anything they wanted, but their allegiance to Jesus. Help them follow his instructions, his instructions to the T on tie. Someone questions you. What do you do? I'm gonna fight arm. No, you just, you look him in the face and you go, the Lord needs it. Said that's what they did. They, they followed what Jesus said.

And, and this is just a, a good question to ask yourself in, in light of what we re we read, this is just a good, especially if you're following Jesus, if you don't follow Jesus, don't you, you can make fun of us as, as we, we sweat. If someone were to follow you through your everyday rhythms, would they get a sense that there is a deep allegiance?

to Jesus' King. Like if someone were to follow you, hover around your shoulder and watch, I'm not even, I'm not even talking about like what you're thinking in your head, that'd just be too revealing, but just watched how you'd carry yourself in your everyday life and not maybe necessarily in every moment.

Because that's really tough. Like, well, how am I, how am I submitting to Jesus as king by brushing my teeth? Well, that's not what I'm talking about, but I'm talking about in the grand scheme of how you're living your life and the decisions that you're making and the hopes and dreams you're putting for yourself, and how you're utilizing your time, your resources, how you're, how you're engaging in relationships and, and how you're thinking about your hopes and dreams.

Would someone get a sense, shoot, would someone get a sense that I. Serve King Jesus. I don't know. I don't know. I hope so.

Which begs the question, how does a person show their allegiance to Jesus as king? And this is what I really wanna talk about as I finish up here. I'm gonna give you a three little things. It's a three point message. Old school. This is how we show our allegiance to Jesus King. First, we obey his commands.

First John five three says this for this is what Love for God is to keep his commands and his commands are not a burden. Question, how are you doing at living out the things you already know? God has asked you to do. I'm not talking about that. Like I wanna follow God, but I just don't know, like this thing, I'm, I'm heading anything about heading into college, but I'm not sure I wanna go to nyu, but I don't know if that's where God wants me to go.

I just don't know. You know? Like, do I, you know, I don't know. Do I, do I, do I bench up from 400 to 450 or are my legs big enough now? I don't know. Like, I don't know. Like I'm talking about the things that God knows. That, that God has told you to do explicit things like, don't lie, don't kill, don't steal.

Maybe it's the specific things that throughout your life that God has asked of you, maybe it's for you, maybe it's not for someone else. You know, don't be a, don't be someone who's taken maybe by wine, maybe for you. Like what is it that you know that God has asked you to do? How are you doing? How are you doing?

If you want Jesus to be king, we need to obey his commandments. Second, we need to, we need to love God's people. John 13:35 says, your love for one another will prove to the world that you're my disciples. Phil, how dare you tell me that I question. How dare you question my love for Jesus? How dare you question whether I'm a disciple?

How dare you? I'm just telling you what Jesus.

First John three 14. Listen to this. If, if that doesn't get you, we know that we have passed from death to life because we love our brothers and sisters. The one who does not love remains in death. Don't miss this. Many people say, I love God, but I don't really care for his people. Or they say, I have a personal relationship with God, but I don't need to be part of any.

But according to the people who live with Jesus, were taught by Jesus eventually died for Jesus. What did they teach? They taught that our spiritual life and love for Christ is demonstrated in our love for Christ bride, the church. In fact, if you don't love your brothers and sisters in Christ, you're actually spiritually dead.

That's just what it says.

This question is,

do you love the believers in your life? Have you reoriented your life so that you could do that? Repurposed your rhythms so you can make that happen? I'm not asking you to give your whole life up and give up all your current friends and all your. Have you started, have you tried to figure it out?

Remember, this is, we're, we're in a long game here. And if you want Jesus to be your king, you should embrace others who love and follow Jesus with love as God has instructed us to do.

And then last and not least, if you read verses 32 to 35, I'm running out of time here. I'm so. But you'll see that the disciples of Jesus, they not only just send Jesus on his way, like they get him the donkey, they even, you know, help him up on it. And they could've at this point be like, all right, Jesus, we did our part.

We're gonna go to Jerusalem. We'll see you there. We'll see you there. We'll see you there. And we'll, we'll, we'll cheer ya as you come on in. We'll be like, yeah, that's Jesus, Jesus. Woo. I don't know if that's the, I don't know if they swung their hips like that, but that's, you know, they, Jesus, that's, but that's not what they did.

What did they do? They followed him. And they took their robes and they kind of created this, this, this like grand carpet, just announcing the fact that Jesus was coming. They gave him all, they gave, they they gave, they gave attention, and they made attention known. And this is really the last idea of what it takes to make Jesus our king.

And we need to give him our attention. We need to give him our attention. Pastor by the name of Louie Gigo recently gave a talk this past January to a stadium filled with people called Passion Conference, and he talked about this importance of being aware of where we invest our attention. In fact, I'm just gonna go ahead and use this illustration just really good because he actually makes a statement.

He says this quote, we are living more than ever in an economy of attention. In other words, the way the economy works is based on your attention and multiple lifestyles are now emerging of people of all kinds of messages, lanes and purposes, and they're banking on you giving them your attention. He goes on to talk about what all of us know about the realities of social media and how social media monetization works.

If you don't understand that, then well don't worry about it. But he talks about that and he talks about this current fad and this current obsession with pushing people to get absorbed into things like social media by people who want to influence us. They call them influencers, right?

And he doesn't, I mean, he goes into a little bit more about talking about like how social media's dangerous and all this stuff, and that's not my message for today. The message, the point that he makes that I really think is, is worth noting as we travel through this passage is, is this thing he said, he said, in this economy of attention, my attention is the thing I should actually be paying the most attention to.

In this economy of attention, my attention is the most important thing I should be paying attention to the most because God is actually inviting me to give me his, inviting me to give him my attention. And the disciples, God, Jesus, his donkey even helped him up onto it, but it wasn't enough just to send Jesus on.

He would do to only do what he could do. Only he could ride on the cold de donkey. Only he could be walking in, could be writing in as king of the Jews, but they participated in what Jesus was already up to. Listen, they just didn't let Jesus go do his thing. They said, no, no, no, no, no. Jesus is our king. And we will go where he goes and what he does, we will follow.

And even as he does, we are going to make sure that we are a part of what he is up to in this world. And we're gonna do that by giving him what we can, our attention in this moment, and then making sure that in this moment everybody else knows that Jesus is. So that they could give God their attention as well.

I don't know where you are at your journey of faith in Jesus, but no matter where you are, could I encourage you to remember that Jesus is not only the king of kings, but he desires to be the king of your life as well, but you need to obey his commands love. Two, love his people. And three, give him your attention.

Phillip Santillan 2/26/23 Phillip Santillan 2/26/23

Part 3: The Lost Son (Luke 15:11-32)

Phillip Santillan 2/19/23 Phillip Santillan 2/19/23

Part 2: The Lost Coin (Luke 15:8-10)

Phillip Santillan 2/12/23 Phillip Santillan 2/12/23

Part 1: The Lost Sheep (Luke 15:1-7)