“Why All the Fuss?” By Brother Parrish Lee March 31st,
2013 We have dedicated this month to be the
Path of Jesus month. The first week we
talked about from the birth of Jesus up until He was twelve. The second Sunday we talked about Jesus from
the age of twelve until Palm Sunday. Last
week was Palm Sunday and today is Easter.
We are going to open up today with a Scripture from Mark 16. If you would just bow your heads with me
for a moment: “Lord, we thank you for everything that You have given us today,
and, truly, we are amazed at Your greatness and Your power and Your Spirit,
that You just pour down on us. If You would
consider us to be brought into Your Kingdom.
Lord, we are just in awe of You.
So, Lord, as You have given us so much today, we pray for the reading
and the going over Your word, and the message today, Lord, that it would do exactly as You would have this to
do. That Your Word will not return unto
You void, but it will accomplish exactly what You set it out to do. We pray for a blessing on us, the recipients,
and me, the giver, God, as You would give all this. God, we pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen. Why all the fuss? What’s the big deal? Last week was Palm Sunday, and on Palm
Sunday, the big deal was that the Lord Jesus went and rode an ass's colt into
Jerusalem. The spread out palm leaves in His path, and they threw them in the
air, and they put their garments in his path, and He was riding into the city,
and they exclaimed "Hosanna, Hosanna, glory to God in the highest!” They
were having some big expectations about that.
The question is, “Why the big deal?
What’s all the fuss about? I'm
sure many people rode an ass’s Colt into Jerusalem, or maybe even an ass. I'm sure there were many people gave messages in
the Temple, so why did they make such a big deal about this guy, and why were His
messages so powerful? Surely there were other people brought before the
Sanhedrin, turned into the council for this reason for that, so why the anger
and the animosity about this guy? What’s all that fuss about? We know that there were others that were
crucified, so why the big deal about this one.
Why the account written and passed down through the ages from generation
to generation? Why all the fuss? Matthew
21:11-15 …cast out all them that sold
and bought in the Temple… Now if there was a reason, if you ever
wonder why some of them were upset, this is it.
Jesus, after He went into Jerusalem, He turned over those tables; this
was how they made their living! They
made their living doing this, and He flipped over those tables, and not only
that, He cleaned out that courtyard! He
cleaned up the Temple area, and not just that:
He turned, and He healed the lame and the blind (right in front of
them!), and the young people were praising God--Oh, what a sight that must have
been. That's a big deal—You’re able to give sight to the blind, You’re making
people walk that had never been able to walk before, that’s a big deal. So the Lord Jesus cleaned up the temple,
chased out that which didn't belong, and put back in what should have been
there: The Spirit of God. That’s a big deal—but it’s even bigger than
that. This must have been a sight, to
see the Lord come in and do all of these things right in front of them. That must have been awesome to see. Matthew
26:30-32 …After I am risen again, I
will go before you into Galilee. (The sound of Jesus singing must have
been awesome. Talk about sincerity. That must have just melted hearts.) After I am risen again, after I am risen
again! Jesus didn’t wait until He was on the cross to tell them that He was
going to be risen. He didn’t wait for
things to get really, really bad; He told them right then, “After I am risen
again, I will go before you.” Now to us in 2013, that sounds pretty good, but
we have already seen His testimony and we have heard His story, but, way back
then they must have said, “After You are risen again? Lord we have seen You open blinded eyes, we’ve
seen that. And we have seen You heal the
lame. If truth be told, we have even seen
you raise a person or two from being dead. Now, don’t get us wrong, those things must
have been marvelous. That’s better than any doctor. We’ve seen You raise Lazarus, the young maid,
and the young man that was the only son of his mother, but, Lord, all those
people, they still get hungry. They all
still sleep, after a couple of days, those people all need baths, and most of
all make mistakes and sin. Most of all, they’re all going to die again,
Lord. Is this what You were talking
about? Extending Your life? Is this what
we have to look forward to?” That must have been awesome for the disciples
trying to figure that out. Speaking of trying to figure things out,
I’ve got a quick story. Years ago when I was in the service, 1981 to be exact,
my ship visited a lot of countries, and one of them was Israel. What a
beautiful land it was. That was my first
time. I hadn’t heard very much about it;
maybe a little bit. That kind of piqued
my interest. They offered these tours so
I thought it would be special to go on one; some of the people I knew talked
about Bible stuff, let’s go see some of this stuff. We went to all these
places, the place where Jesus was born (they built a church there), They built
churches some of the places where Jesus did miracles, there was a church at
Golgotha (what we would call the place of the skull), but one of the places we
went to was this church where they say He rose again. I think it’s called the
Church of the Holy Sepulcher. I didn’t
know anything—I wasn’t a Christian yet, and I had just come from being
Muslim. We stood in this line and walked
into this temple within the temple if you will. So, I’m in there with some of my shipmates,
and we’re looking at this stuff, and it was really interesting. We went on and walked past this really fancy
tomb and it had glass and jewels and flowers all these things on it. I look inside and couldn't see a body. So I
exclaimed to my shipmates, “Hey there's nobody in there!” Then quite loudly, “Hey,
there's nobody in there! This is a rip-off!”
At the time, I didn’t understand why nobody was around me. Everybody was giving me plenty of room. I
didn’t know! I didn’t understand
what the resurrection was about. I must
have had the same sort of reaction that the disciples had, “What possibly could
it be that you’re talking about, Lord?” So Jesus was delivered away to be
crucified. That should have been the end
of the story. No more miracles, no more
crowds following Him from city to city, no more news being shared from place to
place. The truth on that one is, there
were many stories to go along with that. Those who had experienced His healing,
I can imagine them saying, “Well, I guess that’s it. They done crucified that guy, so next time
I'm in pain or I need a healing, I don’t know what I’m going to do.” The people
that were without comfort, I can imagine them saying, “Well, the great guy that
came and treated us with love and compassion, they crucified that guy, so I
guess that’s the end of that. No more
compassion, and no more great love coming to us.” I'm sure those who were around Him and
learning, and studying, and having their questions answered; I’m sure they were
thinking, “I don’t know what we’re going to do now. They crucified Him. Where are we going to get that great wisdom
about God and His Kingdom and His ways? I guess that’s the end of that.” Those who traveled with him, the disciples,
the 70, the women ministered to him in with him, I'm sure they were thinking, “What
now? They crucified our Lord? What are we going to do? Are they going to hunt us down? Are they going to kill us, like they killed
him?" Saints of God, this was all a big deal; this was all a great big
deal. Why all the fuss? For everybody that likes those crazy
zombie shows, the Bible says that the graves were opened; not all the people,
the graves of the Saints. Showing
everybody that this Guy, this Lord, the Crucified One has the power to bring
any saint up out of the grave. He
doesn't scare you too bad, hey, that's a big deal! He’s already proven that He has the power;
He’ll loosen the bonds of death. Yes,
that’s a big deal. When I'm alone and the Lord comforts me,
that's a big deal. When you’re sick or in pain and you need Him to minister and
come to you and give to you what you can’t find no place else, and the Lord reaches
out and touches your situation, that's a big deal. When you have a problem, an issue, something
that you can’t deal with yourself, and you just turn it over to Him, and He says,
“I am your Lord. This one is min that he gave to me.” The Lord will come through for you. That’s a big deal. In 2013, a man didn’t know the name of the
Lord, and, even when I spoke it, it had no meaning. Now, in 2013, saints, we can speak His name,
and know that there’s something going on there.
That’s a big deal. When we share,
and sing His praises, and read His Word; when we give it over to Him and His
presence is there before us. That’s a
big deal. I have a quick side bar today. You know
what this time of year where they have all these religious shows on TV. (sidebar within the sidebar: You have to be careful about these religious
shows: Hollywood is not a friend of God. Some of those religious shows, they’re way
past kooky, they’re actually blasphemous.
Some of them are way past stupid; they actually hurt. Okay, end of the sidebar to the sidebar.) There’s this one religious show on TV and they call it, “The Bible.” It’s a miniseries. Anyone seen it? It's quite popular. There’s some guys at work, every Monday, they
ask me about it, “Hey, did you see it?” One
of the people said, “I didn’t know that the angels were Ninjas.” (They’re running around with Samurai swords.)
It might be popular, but, accurate? Well,
that's a subject for another time. Anyway,
it’s popular. It’s very popular. It’s so popular, that you know what they did?
They wrote a book about the movie! They
made a book about a movie, that’s based on a book. It's called, “A story of God in all of us: a
novel based on the epic TV miniseries ‘the Bible.’” Let me say this, rather than get it third or
fourth hand you can get it straight from the vine—the Bible itself. We don’t
have to read about this person’s interpretation and how they might have heard
it from somebody else who heard it from somebody else. We can get it straight from the vine itself,
the Word of God. Now back to the
message. When all this stuff was going on, one
person stands out. He appeared first unto Mary
Magdalene. Why in the world did Jesus
appear to Mary first? After all, he had
twelve disciples that followed Him everywhere.
He had the seventy that He had given power over all manner of
sicknesses. There were plenty of dedicated
people. There were people of the
Pharisees that came out. One was Joseph,
and he gave Him His tomb. There were
plenty of people who were dedicated, but why would Mary be first? Is it because she was so thankful that she
had all those demons cast out of her? That’s a great point, but that’s not it. Is it because she was a woman, and had that
compassion that men just won’t understand? Hey, that’s a great point, but that ain’t
it. Is it because she went to rise up early
in the morning? You know, if that was
it, I’d be out. Do you know why He
appeared first to Mary Magdalene? according to the Word, she was the only one
looking for him. My point is, yes, she
was thankful for all the things that the Lord had cast out of her life. Yes, she was thankful for the things that the
Lord continued to do. According to the
scripture, she was the only one there at the tomb, the only one looking for the
Lord. She was the only one, so,
naturally, He was going to appear to her.
In the scripture, she went back to tell the disciples, and, of course,
they didn’t believe her. That says a lot
right there. She was the only one
looking. Hebrews 11 6 …without faith it is impossible to please him… He is a rewarder of those, not those
that sit by the wayside and hope that something is going to happen, but He is a
rewarder of those that diligently seek Him.
That’s a guarantee. That’s a
promise. So, you know what you can say?
you can say, “Thanks. What's that going
on over there in my life? I’m feeling a little something, a little emotion. You know what that is? that's the Lord,
rising in that area of my life. Oh,
what’s that going on over here? I need
to investigate. You know what’s going on
over here? That’s the Lord, rising in this area of my life.” I have to look, I have to search, I have to
seek, for areas of my life, and I will find that the Lord is trying to rise in
areas of my life. He’s trying to rise in
areas of all of our lives. If we seek
Him, then we will find Him. The next part of this big deal: John 1:12 …to them gave He power to become the
sons of God… Saints, this is a huge deal. Our relationship
is changed. It was, before, that you
could be a servant, you could be a laborer. You could be a person that God could tell
something to do, and you could be an obedient person. You could be in one of all kinds of
offices: you could be a prophet of the
Lord; you could be an evangelist; you could be a tribe of the Lord; but our
relationship has changed from all of those offices, all those duties, now we
can be a son of God, a daughter of God, a child of God. That is a huge
deal. I’ve seen parents that would huddle
their children, they’d have friends and stuff over, and when somebody would do
something wrong, they would chastise them all, but when it’s their child, they paid special attention. As my mom used to say, “I can’t so it for everybody’s
child, but I can do it for my child. My child will act right. You ain’t gonna embarrass the family. I ain’t got jurisdiction over him, but I do
over you, and you know I’ll fix you up.”
It worked. To be a child of God,
think of that. When you were not a
child, and you become a child, everything changes. Now you have that love that never goes
away. I’m not talking about concern and
affection, I’m talking about parental love.
From that, I’m going to go to my last Scripture for today (this is going
to sum it all up): John 14:1-3 …I go to prepare a place for you… Our Lord has gone to prepare a place
for us. May God add a blessing to the
reading of His Word. Happy Easter, everyone! God bless you. Sermon notes by Pete Shepherd |
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