Sermon: Embrace: The Holiness of the King

Scripture Text: Matthew 19:28-40

Quotes for Reflection

J.I. Packer, Rediscovering Holiness
Just as there could be for Jesus no crown without the cross, so there can be for us no holiness without praise.

Thomas Merton, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander
How absolutely central is the truth that we are first of all part of nature, though we are a very special part, that which is conscious of God. In solitude, one is entirely surrounded by beings which perfectly obey God. 

N.T. Wright, Luke for Everyone
That was the way the pilgrims came, with Jesus going on ahead, as he had planned all along. This was to be the climax of his story, of his public career, of his vocation. He knew well enough what lay ahead, and had set his face to go and meet it head on. He couldn’t stop announcing the kingdom, but that announcement could only come true if he now embodied in himself the things he’d been talking about. The living God was at work to heal and save, and the forces of evil and death were massed to oppose him, like Pharaoh and the armies of Egypt trying to prevent the Israelites from leaving. But this was to be the moment of God’s new Exodus, God’s great Passover, and nothing could stop Jesus going ahead to celebrate it.

Application Questions

1. How does the Passover shed light on the meaning of Jesus’s entry into Jerusalem?

2. What role does praise of Jesus play in understanding his holiness?

3. Jesus did not meet some people’s expectations. How might you be asking Jesus to follow you?