Norris Ferry Sermons

As we commission these graduates, our prayer for you is that you would live EPIC lives to the Glory of God.

Over the last couple weeks we’ve been considering various characteristics of genuine disciples.  Today we continue along the same lines as we study encounters Jesus has with two men. Through these encounters we will consider three more counter-cultural, counter-intuitive characteristics of genuine disciples.

Culturally, we tend to think that it is all about who we are and what we do that makes us right with God but Jesus is saying that is not the way it works.  We may say we are Christians, and say we are disciples of Jesus and say we are righteous but are we?  Are you?  Clearly Jesus feels the need to clarify what genuine salvation looks like.  So that is what we continue to look at today and next week.

And that spirit of self righteousness that we sometimes get can keep us from coming to know Jesus as our savior… but it also can pop back up sometimes even after we know Christ and can keep us from growing IN Christ. . And thats why it is so important for us to remind ourselves and preach to ourselves the gospel over and over again.

And this is the BIG IDEA for today… ONLY THE HUMBLE IN HEART CAN BE MADE RIGHTEOUS. 

Today, we will look at Luke 18:1-8.  In these verses Jesus continues along the same lines only today He tells a parable designed to help us not lose heart as we await His return.  In Luke 18:1 Luke says, [Jesus] told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. Luke tells us up front what Jesus is doing.  He is telling us a parable to the effect that we ought always to pray and not lose heart.

Today, we study Luke 17:20-37 and it actually fits really well because in this passage we will consider the details of Jesus’ return.  Jesus was crucified, buried, resurrected and ascended to heaven and he will return to earth again.  

Do you think much about his return?  Seems like some people do and others don’t.  I think about it more the older I get.  I think all of us would love to know the details: when, how, and where Jesus will return wouldn’t we?!  Well, today, that is exactly what we are going to learn.  In these verses we see Jesus explaining three key details about his return!

We’ve been studying the book of Luke and last week we considered why Jesus was crucified.  Everyone involved in the crucifixion said with their own mouths that Jesus was an innocent man.  So, why did they crucify Him?  Luke made it clear he was crucified in fulfillment of the Scriptures.  

The Old Testament Scriptures prophesied many things about the Messiah - including specifically that the Messiah would be crucified and resurrected. Jesus’ life, death and resurrection fulfilled these Scriptures.  But why?  We saw why last week.  God punished the innocent Messiah so that the guilty - Barabbas could be set free!  That’s me!  That’s all of us who put our faith in Jesus Christ!

Today is Palm Sunday.  What is Palm Sunday?  Palm Sunday is the day we remember and celebrate the day Jesus rode into Jerusalem as a king and they honored him by waving palm branches and laying the palm branches along his path.  It was a monumental day for Jesus was fulfilling the prophecy of Zechariah (9:9) “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” Several hundred years after this was written, the long awaited king rode into Jerusalem, humble and mounted on a donkey and the people rejoiced and honored Him with palm branches.  We are still rejoicing and honoring Him today!

What do we do when we are confronted? More often than not we try to justify ourselves. When someone points out our sin, why do we self-justify. Today, Jesus warns us against such this as He continues to call us to repentance.