Thanks Giving services/Sermon in Minneapolis 25.11.2005

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. We read for the opening text here from the nineteenth chapter of Luke beginning with the twenty-ninth verse, and the words are in Jesus' name.

And it came to pass when he was come nigh to Bethphage and Bethany at the mount called the Mount of Olives. He sent two of his disciples saying, Go ye into the village over against you, into which at your entering, you shall find a colt tied, whereon yet never man sat. Loose him and bring him hither.

And if any man ask you, Why do you loose him? Thus shall you say unto him, Because the Lord hath need of him. And they that were sent went their way and found even as he had said unto them. And as they were loosing the colt, the owners thereof said unto them, Why loose ye the colt? And they said, The Lord hath need of him.

And they brought him to Jesus, and they cast their garments upon the colt. And they said, Jesus thereon. And as he went, they spread their clothes in the way. And when he was come nigh, even now, at the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, saying, Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord.

Peace in heaven and glory in the highest. And some of the Pharisees from among the multitudes said unto him, Master, rebuke thy disciples. And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out. And when he was come near, he beheld the city and wept over it. Amen.

In the beginning here, I want to remember to bring special greetings to you, dear fellow travelers here in the Minneapolis area, especially, of course, from my wife and family, but also from many other members in the congregation. We had services last evening, and many asked that I bring greetings. And in particular, I want to mention a certain brother who many of you know. His name happens to be Ignos, and he sent many, many warm and loving greetings to you fellow travelers here. He wanted me to especially remember that.

And I also am happy to report concerning our dear African brother that he's doing well. I'm sure that many of you know he's a student. He's in school, and he's adjusted, I think, remarkably well. It's not always easy. You think about a person coming from a drastically different culture to be here for a little while is one thing.

But to actually change your culture and your lifestyle for an extended period of time, it can be very difficult. And he, God certainly has remembered him and blessed him. He's doing very well in school. He's got a very nice place now to live with some believing young men. And so, it's still yet, I think, important that we remember our dear brother in our prayers.

And he was very happy that I was coming. I said, Boy, it'd be kinda fun if you could come along with me. It didn't happen to work out. But nonetheless, he has remembered you with great love. The text we read, I think, is probably familiar even with some of the Sunday school students.

And you probably know that in this, in fact, this week, Sunday starts the time of Advent. This happens to be one of the texts that's set aside for the time of Advent, a time of waiting. You know, there's several Sundays leading up to Christmas that we call Advent. And during this time when Jesus entered into Jerusalem, really, it was for all practical purposes the last time, in a certain sense, that he did enter, you might say, as a free man, was thought to have been the Sunday before he gave his life on our behalf.

It was very close, in other words, to the end of his life. But that's not the only thing that this text happens to be used for. It's somewhat of a coincidence. This is also a text that's used at a time of Thanksgiving. So we have these two things that converge where we have a time of Advent starting.

We also, this weekend, have this opportunity to gather over Thanksgiving time when we especially pause. And I think it's good that we do as a people and as a nation, and in particular, as the flock of God's people, to thank the heavenly Father for the many blessings that He's bestowed on us, that He's given us. You might wonder why would this one be a kind of a dual text, Advent, and then also Thanksgiving. You probably noticed in this text that there were a couple of verses that had to do with praise and thanksgiving. It was when these disciples who were following Jesus, all of a sudden, for one reason or another, realized the great thanks that they needed to offer to the heavenly Father.

And they burst into this rejoicing, really what it was. And this thanks to the heavenly Father as they saw the King riding into Jerusalem on the back of His donkey. So we have these two themes, you might say, for this text. There was an Old Testament text that's very closely related to this incident, and it came from one of the prophets. And that prophet had seen a vision.

The prophet's name was Zechariah. And if you look in the ninth chapter and the ninth verse, you'd see that in some way, Zechariah was given this vision to foresee what was gonna happen when the Savior would come. Now, did Zechariah understand all the details of it when he wrote about it maybe five, probably six hundred years before it happened? Probably not. But nonetheless, Zechariah saw this vision or wrote about this incident where the King was gonna ride into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey.

That's the kind of King that Jesus is. He's not the typical type you'd think with a crown on His head and those kinds of things. He's a lowly King. He's humble. He knew.

Jesus knew as He entered that city that it wasn't long. It wasn't many days before He would give His life on our behalf. That's the kind of King we have. But the incident leading up to this, I think, also paints a picture for us what was happening at this time in the life of Jesus and what was happening there with the disciples. And certainly, the disciples were happy to see this.

But it's also quite clear in one of the other accounts of this because three of the gospel writers wrote about this incident. We happen to have read the one that Luke wrote about. But the apostle John, probably a number of years later when he wrote his gospel account, he gave a little more insight in this particular incident where they started to rejoice. And you might think that, well, they rejoice because they knew what the prophet had written and this was the time had come where Jesus was gonna ride in. Well, actually, they didn't know.

John makes it very clear in his gospel that it was only later on in their lives after Jesus had already risen from the dead that they realized and remembered what the prophet had written before. So as Jesus rode in, they didn't have really any idea that He was supposed to. In fact, it was prophesied that He would ride into Jerusalem on the back of this colt, as it's called here. And I think for a moment, if you consider what was happening, what was transpiring with this incident where Jesus rode into Jerusalem and sometimes it's called His triumphal or triumphant entry into Jerusalem. Picture, if you will, a small river valley.

It wasn't a big, big valley like you think of. In fact, it would be more, I think in modern English terms, we would call it a ravine. And you're walking up this ravine, and on your left, there's a massive city wall. The city is Jerusalem, and it's a high wall. I know that some people in here have seen that wall.

It's massive. And as you walk up this ravine, then on your right-hand side is the Mount of Olives. I'm sure that you've heard of the Mount of Olives. It's really, in terms of probably northwest terms, it's really not what I would consider a mountain. It's more like a big hill.

But it's called the Mount of Olives. Jesus in his life took refuge there many times. Him and the disciples. So that's on your right. You're going up this.

Well, down the path that comes off the mount, starts on one side, goes over the top of this Mount of Olives from the east and enters into one of the city gates through that wall. That's where Jesus was traveling. It is mentioned here at the beginning of the text pretty much exactly, I would say in detail of what's happening. It says here, and it came to pass when he was come nigh to Bethpage and Bethany, these two villages on the east side of the hill at the mount called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples, asked a couple of them to go do a certain task.

He had something that he wanted him to do, and that was to get this donkey that he was gonna ride into the city on. He said, go into the village over against you, over on the other side over there. Go in the village at your entering, you shall find a colt tied whereon yet never man sat. It was a very young animal. And loose him and bring him hither.

And he also said if anybody asks you, you know, what you're doing, just tell him that the Lord hath need of him. So they did. They went over as Jesus had instructed and said it was just exactly like Jesus said it would be. It said they found even as he had said unto them. And as they were loosing the colt, the owners thereof, they probably wondered, hey.

Wait a minute. Maybe they knew about it. They probably didn't know. Somebody's untying my donkey. So they couldn't ask them, well, what are you doing?

And they explained in very simple terms. The Lord hath need of him. They let him go. They brought this donkey to Jesus. And this was when the disciples in fact, it was a much larger group.

It wasn't just the disciples. There was a large group of other people there too. Curious. They had seen some of the miracles that Jesus had done, especially recently. One of them was probably, we would have to say, a very significant miracle in this sense that Jesus, during the previous number of days, had actually raised a man from the dead.

There was a man who died, and he'd been dead now for several days. And Jesus, before the eyes of many onlookers, raised Lazarus from the dead. He came walking out of the cave, the grave that he was in, and he still had the bandages on the head if you could imagine. Many people wondered about this. And, subsequently, as a result, they then had come to see Jesus.

Some people that previously hadn't believed now were able to believe that this was their savior. And it mentions what happened. They begin to take their garments, and they set them on the colt, kinda like a saddle for Jesus to sit on. And they put Jesus on top, and it says, and then as he went, they spread their clothes in the way. There's another one of the other accounts that relates how they took palm branches and laid them down, which was a sign of royalty in those days and honor and respect, which they did.

And if you were to walk that path that Jesus walked, and some of us had the opportunity. I see a couple of people, several that had the opportunity to walk the very same path that Jesus did several years ago we did. And there's a point at which you reach the top of the Mount of Olives, and you begin to descend down. And when you begin to descend down, you really can no longer, you don't have a glimpse of the city at that point. There's a ridge that blocks your view.

And it's almost certain that that was the point at which these people begin to rejoice. Jesus, it says here, was come nigh even now at the descent of the Mount of Olives. He was starting to go down the hill. And it mentions that the whole multitude of the disciples, in particular, begin to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works they had seen.

They actually begin to—I don't know how many of you younger people have seen it—when believing people, when Christian people actually rejoice, sometimes you can actually kinda stand up and begin praising God.

I've seen it in services before. I've seen it here in this country, and I've seen it in Finland. And when a person becomes that happy, that thankful, they can hardly contain themselves. But you might say their cup runs over, and they begin to rejoice and praise God. Sometimes they say, "Lord Jesus, be praised."

Because they realize how thankful they need to be and should be over the great grace that God has extended to them. That's in essence what happened here. They realized God's great grace. He'd sent the Savior. Did they understand what was gonna happen?

I think we can clearly say they didn't really understand at that time. They thought—we know from scripture—they thought that Jesus was gonna be the king. You know, a regular old king. They didn't realize that the nature of this king was entirely different than any king that ever lived before or after.

They didn't realize that this king was on the threshold of going to a sacrificial death, not because he did anything wrong. He was perfect. But going to a sacrificial death for their sins. Did they comprehend all that? No.

They didn't. Not at that point. They realized that after he risen from the dead. But, nonetheless, they were thankful that God had sent this king and this Savior for them. And they begin—it says here—they begin to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice.

And you can imagine. They were making a lot of noise and praising. And in fact, they remembered one of the Psalms when they praised him. It was, if I remember correctly, the hundred and eighteenth Psalm. If you were to look at that, it's exactly what's said here.

And it's a Psalm of praise and thanksgiving. It says here's what they said: "Blessed be the king that cometh in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest." So they were overcome with joy and happiness and rejoicing loudly.

And perhaps some of them were even kind of broken up. We don't know, but they were very loud about it. What was the reaction of some of those other ones that were by there? These say the ones that were unbelieving. And there was a number of them with this multitude in that large crowd where they'd thrown their clothes down and so forth that they were unbelieving.

What was their reaction when they heard this kind of thanksgiving? Well, it wasn't really very pleasant. They didn't like it. It says here what they did: Some of the Pharisees from among the multitude said unto him, "Master, rebuke thy disciples."

In other words, tell them to be quiet. They're making a lot of noise. They're making a lot of racket. What's this all about? They were offended.

And I think we could clearly say there was certainly a clear reason in there that we can gather from this. They were, for one thing, jealous. Why? Because they saw these people following Jesus. In another point, another part of scripture about this admission, they thought, "Well, the whole world's going after him. We're losing our authority. We're losing our control over these people."

So their natural reaction was to ask Jesus to rebuke them, to correct them. "This is not right. This is not good."

Jesus had an answer that I think shows when we consider the thanks of a child of God, not from our fleshly portion because we do carry two portions. We have our fleshly portion, but also the child of God has what's called sometimes the new man or the new person, the spiritual portion. That part of us that's under the care and the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

And we can see here where it describes the reaction of the Pharisees, their jealousy. It was about this rejoicing that they saw from God's people, their happiness over this king.

And they recognized him as king, but, of course, the believing ones, but the unbelievers did not, and in fact, had been plotting for some time to figure out a way that they could actually take the life of Jesus, silence him. Jesus' reaction to them, who asked him to rebuke the disciples, in some ways, is somewhat surprising. But when we think of this portion of a child of God that is the new man, it's not surprising. Jesus told him this.

He said, I tell you, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out. That's how overpowering and how overwhelming this desire through the Spirit was to thank and praise their heavenly Father.

When we consider now this time of Thanksgiving, which we celebrate as a nation, as a people, and other nations have a similar holiday, not always at the same time. You know, the believers in Canada had it last month. They have their Thanksgiving in October.

But we consider this time of thanks, and I think it's good that we have this national holiday. We pause, and I think look at how richly God has blessed this our fatherland. And in fact, many of them, especially the western nations, Western Europe as well. There are other nations that we know of and we see, in fact, believing people in them. They're not so greatly blessed as we are in Timberlake.

Sometimes life is very difficult. It's more difficult in many ways than we could imagine in a temporal sense. So at this time of Thanksgiving, we thank God certainly for the many temporal blessings that you've given us. We think of our homes, our families. We think of our livelihoods.

Sometimes we think we struggle. Maybe there's a little struggle over job or those kinds of things. But when we really consider, is it that kind of struggle that some of our brothers and sisters in other countries have experienced? Generally not. We've been so greatly blessed.

Sometimes we can all almost say that we've been perhaps we have too much in this life because what happens? It's so easy for us to be influenced by materialism. Think temporal things, buying things, getting things. We have so much that it can easily become too important to us. But nonetheless, when we consider how our Father has blessed us, it is good that we thank Him for temporal things.

We often pray as a matter of fact. Even your children do. I'm sure you do at night when you say your prayers. It's practically every night, I'm sure. What is it you say?

You say, give us this day our daily bread. That's a kind of prayer even for those temporal things. We think about the life of Jesus and what he did. There were times when he did miracles that actually, you might say, even in a temporal sense, fed the people. And it wasn't only the believing people either that he cared about and that he fed.

What's an example? Well, think about the feeding of the 5,000. Sometimes it's called the multiplication of the loaves and fishes because they only had a few loaves and they only had a few fish. And he fed thousands of people with that food. And they weren't all believing.

He met their temporal needs. Some people misunderstood it, and they thought, boy, he'd make a good king. That's the kind of king we need. Don't even have to worry about temporal things anymore. But that's not the kind of king that Jesus is.

That's not the reason that he came here even though he does meet those needs. And when we pray to the heavenly Father, we certainly do so in sincerity and in thankfulness for the temporal things: the food, the clothing, our families, our jobs. The list could go on and on of how greatly God has blessed us. And at this time of Thanksgiving, we think about that, and it's good that we do. But what about the other blessings in this life?

And I'm not talking about food or shelter. But what about this, dear brothers and sisters, that from all the multitudes of people, the millions, the billions of people, you, dear child of God, have been called into His kingdom. Maybe it's because you've been born into a believing home, but not always. Maybe—and I'm sure that there are those here in our midst today—they weren't born into a believing home.

But by God's great grace, they were called into God's kingdom. In this life, they heard the gospel, and they were able to believe that gospel. I think it's probably been your experience, and I know it's been my experience. We think about the temporal blessings, which are many. And it's so easy for us that the temporal blessings can even actually overshadow the spiritual blessings in our lives.

It's so easy for us to become attached even though we want to be thankful for those things that we've been given. Don't we have this kind of a heart as a child of God? Dear Father, give me the correct understanding of how greatly you've blessed me in this life. And how does this affect our lives when we think about the great spiritual blessings, but we also, on the other hand, feel so often the pull of this world, the temporal things that seem to dominate so much of our lives?

Well, we would have to say that in the life of a child of God and on the journey, there's one thing that we—and I know I often forget, and you probably have had the same experience.

And that's how much we need to hear the word of God. We get busy in our lives. The work pulls us this way. The family pulls us that way. Things are going on in the world, even temporal things that maybe there's nothing wrong with what they are, but they affect our lives.

Has it been your experience that sometimes those temporal, those earthly things overshadow the more important, which is the spiritual? We can forget how much we need to hear the word of God. Why? Why do we need to hear the word of God? Because that precious word, the gospel in particular, it's our source of strength.

It's been my experience that sometimes, for example, maybe there's service occasions or something's going on with the church. It's not uncommon that, yeah, we're busy in our lives. I think, well, maybe at tonight or, you know, maybe this particular time, I'm gonna—maybe I'll—I got something else that I need to do. You know, we can get very creative with excuses.

I can't if I need to. But yet I'll have to say that it's been my experience when even against my own flesh and blood, I've been able to go to services. I've been able to hear God's word. Even a poor traveler like myself, I'll have to say that God has remembered me, and He fed me with His word. He knew before I even asked what I needed.

Has it been your experience? Maybe even you young people, you kids. It's good to come to services. Sometimes in life, I think you'll experience that the pull of the world, the cares of this world, the everyday life can sometimes get in the way. Remember, in your lives, maybe when mother and father remind you, let's say in your teenage years, it seems good to go to services.

It's good to listen. You get to see friends here. That's true. But never forget that for going to services, church activities, the most important thing is a very lowly thing—that such a poor one could hear the gospel, could hear the word of encouragement. That dear young one or dear mother or dear father who also are very busy in this life. What about grandmother or grandfather?

Same thing. Remember in your lives the importance of the correct kind of Thanksgiving. Even here at this time of Thanksgiving where we lay the table with all kinds of lavish food—turkey, ham, all kinds of stuff beyond what we could imagine. You know, our brother Ignace, he went over to somebody's house for a thing. I called up to try to get him to you.

Somebody had already got it. He went over to their house and, you know, he said it was a lot of food. If you could imagine, probably, certainly, that home would never have seen anything like that. Do we have a lot to be thankful for? We do.

But let's always pray and hope this way that we as God's children can, through the Spirit, put these matters in the correct perspective. That the cares of this world, the things of this world, the material things wouldn't become so important that they would overshadow or take the place of that lowly thing that provides strength and nourishment to the child of God. Even that preached word to you, perhaps this evening. Find yourself to be a poor Christian. Find yourself to be of such little faith. Find yourself to be the poorest one.

Listen. That Word that comes from weak and faulty lips is a word that also comes from heaven because it's not man's word. It's the precious word of our heavenly Father that says, dear son or dear daughter, your sins are forgiven in Jesus' name and precious atonement blood, and you can believe that gospel even this evening. And I also need to hear the same gospel.

It seems so often in my life, it's easy to get priorities mixed up. The things of this life so often become too important. I need to hear this reassurance over that matter and all my sins and shortcomings. Can you preach the gospel to me? I promise to be leaving you.

In Jesus' name, amen.