What Happened?

12 On the next day much people that were come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, 13 Took branches of palm trees, and went forth to meet him, and cried, Hosanna: Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord. 14 And Jesus, when he had found a young ass, sat thereon; as it is written, 15 Fear not, daughter of Sion: behold, thy King cometh, sitting on an ass’s colt. 16 These things understood not his disciples at the first: but when Jesus was glorified, then remembered they that these things were written of him, and that they had done these things unto him. 17 The people therefore that was with him when he called Lazarus out of his grave, and raised him from the dead, bare record. 18 For this cause the people also met him, for that they heard that he had done this miracle. 19 The Pharisees therefore said among themselves, Perceive ye how ye prevail nothing? behold, the world is gone after him.

What a magnificent scene. people worshipping, praising, singing, bowing...

Jesus is glorified, all the people are celebrating.

Then, less than 7 days later...

Luke 23:13–24 KJV 1900

13 And Pilate, when he had called together the chief priests and the rulers and the people, 14 Said unto them, Ye have brought this man unto me, as one that perverteth the people: and, behold, I, having examined him before you, have found no fault in this man touching those things whereof ye accuse him: 15 No, nor yet Herod: for I sent you to him; and, lo, nothing worthy of death is done unto him. 16 I will therefore chastise him, and release him. 17 (For of necessity he must release one unto them at the feast.) 18 And they cried out all at once, saying, Away with this man, and release unto us Barabbas: 19 (Who for a certain sedition made in the city, and for murder, was cast into prison.) 20 Pilate therefore, willing to release Jesus, spake again to them. 21 But they cried, saying, Crucify him, crucify him. 22 And he said unto them the third time, Why, what evil hath he done? I have found no cause of death in him: I will therefore chastise him, and let him go. 23 And they were instant with loud voices, requiring that he might be crucified. And the voices of them and of the chief priests prevailed. 24 And Pilate gave sentence that it should be as they required.

This is not a different city, or a different year. these are not different [people. This is not a different Jesus.

Those same people who waved the palm branches. those same people who shouted hosanna, those same people who worshipped. Now demand that the same Jesus be put to death and crucified. Those same people choose a murder over a messiah.

What happened?

Simple: they backslid.

Backsliding is when you profess Christ today, but for various reasons forsake him later. It is a huge problem.

Lets look at back at why the people whom praised one day, persecuted Jesus less than a week later.

What the people wanted

The people were not happy. they were living under roman oppressors. these romans where taking their money, using their sons in the army, stealing the best land for farming, imposing blasphemous laws.

these people had lived under oppression for centuries. From Babaloyians to Persians now the romans.

What they wanted, more than anything, was for someone to come and deliver them from their oppressors.

And Jewish prophecy hinted that one day a deliverer would come, a messiah would come.

And indeed a messiah did come. From the moment of his birth, many jews believed that Jesus would be the one to overthrow Rome and free the jewish people from foreign rule.

When he was Born Herod asked:

Matthew 2:3–4 KJV 1900

3 When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. 4 And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them where Christ should be born.

Who was troubled and why? The leaders were troubled because they truly believed that Jesus was a threat to their political power.

Fast forward 33 years and Jesus enters into Jerusalem. And the people are rejoicing!!!

Rome is gonna go. The people will finally be free. Wealth will finally return to Jewish hands. CHILDREN SERVING IN CEASERS ARMY WILL SOON OME HOME.

And who is going to do all this? Jesus!!!

But there is a problem: Not once in all of his teachings, all of his sermons, all of his parables, did Jesu himself ever say anything like that.

In fact, quote the opposite:

John 18:36 KJV 1900

36 Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence.

And so the problem is not what Jesus did - its what Jesus did not do that upset the people so much.

Lets see what did did that week:

First, instead of going to Rome and kicking pilate out, Jesus goes to the temple and kicks the jews out.

The next day Jesus gives a sermon, not rebuking some for their terrible treatment of the jewish people, but rather Jesus rebukes the jewish people on their treatment of others.

Jesus simply disappoints the people one day after the next until the people cannot take it anymore.

they feel lied to, betrayed, insulted, manipulated and they are angry.

John 1:11 KJV 1900

11 He came unto his own, and his own received him not.

Now this is very important, because despite 2000 years, nothing has changed.

The problem of backsliding remains to this day:

quotes

"A soul at the altar does not generate much excitement in some circles because we realize approximately 95 out of every hundred will not become integrated into the church. In fact, most of them will not return for a second visit." – Charles E. Hackett, the Division of Home Missions National Director for a leading U.S. denomination.

In 1991, organizers of a Salt Lake City concert encouraged follow-up. They said, "Less than five percent of those who respond to an altar call during a public crusade ... are living a Christian life one year later."

A mass crusade reported 18,000 decisions, yet according to Church Growth magazine, 94 percent failed to become incorporated into a local church.

In the March/April 1993 American Horizon, editors disclosed the fact that in 1991, 11,500 churches of a major U.S. denomination had obtained 294,784 decisions for Christ. Unfortunately, they could find only 14,337 in fellowship. They couldn't account for 280,000 of their decisions.

95 out of 100 are no longer in church 1 year later.

Why?

For the exact same reason: Jesus does not do what the people expect him to do. And the main cause of this is false teachings.

Jesus: The saviour or the life improver?

Lets go on a flight.

2 passangers.

1: Jesus the life improver:

Jesus called us to fishers of men. and as every good fisherman knows, if you want to catch the right fish, you have to use the right bait.

The false teachers looks through scripture and suddenly find the perfect bait.

Galatians 5:22–23 KJV 1900

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

Its perfect. can you think of a single person, old, young, rich, poor, black, white who does not need:

To feel loved.

Have peace - in light of all the stress.

who wants to experience joy and happiness all the days of their life: Who doers not want to live happily ever after.

patience and goodness, the list goes on.

So if you come to Jesus: These are just some of the things that you will receive.

You will also get your prayers answered, your sickness healed, your promotion , your marriage revitalised.

It sounds wonderful!!!

yet, a quick look through scripture and there is an elephant in the room: Jesus never promised or said he will do any of that.

Again, quite the opposite:

Mark 13:13 KJV 1900

13 And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.

Matthew 10:17–19 KJV 1900

17 But beware of men: for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues; 18 And ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles. 19 But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak.

John 15:18 KJV 1900

18 If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.

John 16:2 KJV 1900

2 They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.

Very different, but thats what in the bag.

More or less comfortable?

More or less happy?

point and laugh....

Soon he will be sick of it, and throw the bag from him. He will be very angry, because as far as he is concerned - he has been lied to, manipulated, made a fool off.

2: Jesus the saviour

It has well been said that you cannot show Jesus as the cure unless you have first diagnosed sin as the disease.

So a true preacher has a far more urgent message that life improvement. The true christian knows a secret about the plane that no one else does.

And this secret is what gives the christian their authority. And its this secret that the true christian starts with.

What is the secret?n That the plane is going to run out of fuel soon and plumment out of the sky and everyone on board is going to die.

Hebrews 9:27 KJV 1900

27 And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:

So the true christian, risks everything, even offending the man to show him the great danger that he is in. He shows him his sinfulfuless (which is done through the Law). Paul said:

Romans 7:7 KJV 1900

7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.

So you use the law to show him that he is a liar, a thief, a blasphemer, you show him how lust counts as adultery, how hate counts as murder.

in other words: You show him that this plane is going to go down!!!

And then, once you have convinced the man of his demise you present to him the solution.

The Parachute.

And you can say: This will NOT make your flight more comfortable, its quite heavy sometimes. It rather limiting.

But will any of this matter to the man? Of course not!!!

Why? Because the parachute was not meant to improve or enhance the flight. It was meant to save from death.

One of these men will forsake Jesus soon. its only a matter of time.

The other one will hold on to Jesus all the days of his life.

Which one are you?

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