Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

When I was a kid we had this mid week kids program for boys called “Stockade”.

It was kind of like having boy scouts at the Church.

I loved this ministry because it had a lot of hands on activities.

Along with studying the Bible, we had a workshop where we build pinewood derby cars, we went camping and learned how to build campfires and identify trees and we also built Model Rocket Kits.

Armegeddon Movie

We each got one of these small rockets to decorate the outside anyway we wanted and then we would place these engines inside and bring them out to a big field out back of the Church.

We would get to go one by one out to the Launching Pad and then one of the leaders would set our rocket in place.

We then walked back to another leader who was holding the ignition switch.

We then got to pretend we were in the command center and communicating with the crew that was “one the ground”.

The leader would coach us to say:

“Ready to Launch”

And the Grounds crew would say “All systems are go”

Then we would say, “Commencing Countdown” and all the kids would tell out together)

“5 - 4 - 3 - 2 - 1 - Launch!”

I am not going to do it, this is an outside toy, but I wanted to get us all thinking about the excitement and anticipation behind something that is being “Launched”

New things happening here at Friendship

Model Rocket Kit

Tension

This is the time of year when many things are being launched.

School has begun so that families are settling into the “School Year Routine” including the many extra curriculars that have launched along with the school year.

Here at Friendship Church we are gearing up for our launching of Sunday School in two weeks and our mid week gathering about “Serve Teams” that will begin on the Sept 12th.

may have not seen dramatic changes, but as the summer vacation plans come to an end we are planning on seeing most all of our work mates back in their regular routines - just as we settle into them.

This is Labor Day Weekend, and the truth is that even our work environments have a different feel as people have been in and out with summer vacations and now it is time to settle into the work routine.

And I wonder about that word, “routine” because it brings a contrast to our idea of “Launch”.

An important question for our teaching this morning is : “What is the difference between launching something and just having something come back around again?”

And it is the word “Routine” that I want to The question that I think is important for us to consider this morning, is “What is the difference between launching something and just having something come back around again?”

And that is what I want to probe into this morning, among the many things that are launching out this fall, are we really launching something new - or just giving the same old thing a boost again?

Maybe a good comparison would be to consider the difference between a rocket launching and a tether ball game.

New things happening here at Friendship

Anyone remember that game?

It is a ball on a string tied the the top of the pole and the goal is to get the ball “tethered” to the pole - so wrapped all around the pole in a certain direction.

Of course your opponent is trying to get the ball “tethered” around the pole in the opposite direction.

When you get a really good hit on that ball it goes over your opponents head and then comes back to you again and you don’t just let it go by - you hit it again to increase it’s velocity but heading in the same direction on the same path.

What would happen if you launched that ball so hard that the string snapped?

You would be the legend of the playground!

If you literally launched that ball, not just back around in it’s typical orbit but across the playground.

You see I think that the difference between a “Launch” and a “Boost” is key in understanding out text today.

We have come to the part of the Gospel of Luke where Jesus has finally reached the city of Jerusalem, and with him there is a lot of excitement and anticipation.

As we have been learning over the past weeks, many of the Jews traveling with Jesus did not understand what He was arriving in Jerusalem to do.

They were hoping that he was going to return the earthly Kingdom of Israel to it’s position of superpower in the known world.

They had read the stories of how their ancestors like King David and Solomon ruled without equal and they were anticipating that kind of Kingdom of come around again.

But Jesus was not looking to give the Jewish way of life a boost, he was looking to launch something entirely new.

Jesus was arriving in Jerusalem at the perfect time to celebrate the Feast of the Passover.

Probably the most well known and widely celebrated feast of the Jews, and it always brought a huge crowd into Jerusalem.

But Jesus was coming to do more than just celebrate how God had rescued his people in the past - He was there to launch a rescue plan that would offer salvation to all people from the past, to the present and into the future.

Not just a boost, but a Launch.

Of course, in our lives there is nothing intrinsically wrong with having seasons come back around or having routines re-established but... what if God is looking to do more in our lives than just get us back on the same track as we were last year.

What if He wants to take us to an entirely new place?

What if just like in Jesus’ day we come expecting something familiar and then the presence of Jesus in our life launches us toward something entirely new?

Of course, in our lives there is nothing intrinsically wrong with having seasons come back around or having routines re-established but... what if God is looking to do more in our lives than just get us back on the same track as we were last year.

What if He wants to take us to an entirely new place?

What if just like in Jesus’ day we come expecting something familiar and then the presence of Jesus in our life launches us toward something entirely new?

Could we trust that if Jesus is leading us into this new thing, then it will be far better than what we had previously expected?

That is the question that the people in our text today had to grapple with and one that faces us today 2000 years later.

If you haven’t already, open your Bibles to (p. 878) Ill pray for us and then we will learn together how Jesus launched this New Thing in the lives of God’s people.

let’s pray and then learn together how Jesus launched his rescue plan by initiating something that no one expected.

his rescue plan by initiating things that no one expected, but that we far better than they could have planned.

Would we be open to that?

Or are we so set in our routines that all we really want is a boost in that same direction?

Truth

The first thing that Jesus did was

Jesus Initiates His Transportation (19:28-35)

One important thing for us to see in all of this information that Luke offers us in his Gospel is that Jesus did these things very intentionally.

Do you catch how specific his instructions were?

He told them which village.

He told them which animal.

Luke 19:

He told them the condition of the animal.

He told them how to respond when they are asked about what they are doing.

The first thing that Jesus did was to INITIATE HIS TRANSPORTATION

Those are very specific instructions and then we see that it happened just as Jesus had said.

This is not just happenstance.

None of these things are a coincidence.

Jesus is very intentially initiating this launch with these preparations.

There are at least two reasons that Jesus had for making sure that his “Launch” got started like this.

There are at least two reasons that Jesus gave such specific examples.

For one thing, it followed after God’s Will as he had sent word to his prophets on how it should happen, and the second was because Jesus knew the political tension that surrounded his coming into Jerusalem.

1.

It followed after God’s Will as he had revealed it to his prophets a long time ago

2. It was because Jesus knew the political tension that surrounded his coming into Jerusalem, and he didn’t want anything to get in the way of his mission.

It was the prophet Zechariah who said:

I remember having dinner with a friend of mine and it was right after Palm Sunday and he was just pondering on what he thought was a possibility that Jesus was actually riding into Jerusalem on a strong and noble white stallion.

This guy was a “Mans Man” kind of guy.

He was into these big truck pulls where back smoke flies out the back and the truck bears down the dirt track…so from his perspective he wanted to see Jesus manhandling the reigns of this powerful animal as it snorted and strutted into the city.

That imagery would have communicated well to this guy, and for most of us who consider our selves manly men, but that would not have communicated the same message to the people in Jesus’ day.

He probably has wate

The truth is that in Jesus’ day the image of a ruler riding on the foal of a donkey sent a very powerful message in and of itself.

You see when a King rode into the city on a war horse it meant that the men were off to war.

However, when he rode in on a donkey, that meant that any threat to the kingdom had been eliminated and now is a time of peace.

Donkeys were beasts of burden, used to plow and work the fields.

In our pleasure and entertainment dominated society we don’t see work as the privilege that it is.

Maybe thinking on that would be an appropriate way to spend some of our Labor Day weekend.

When you live in a war torn Kingdom, where the men are off fighting battles, then they are not home to plant the fields.

Your land goes to waste, and your ability to provide for your family is threatened.

But when you get to put away your war horse and get out your donkey, that means that their is peace in the land.

You now have the privelage of working your land, increasing your crops and providing for you family.

So this image of a King riding in on a donkey was a powerful one.

It means that the authority of this King has already been established, so there is not need for continued war.

As we will see in the upcoming verses.

As Zechariah had prophesied many years before, Israels new King, Jesus, would come to to initiate a time of Peace