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It's an exciting time. I love the Easter season. I love getting to celebrate our Lord's death and resurrection. So this morning, we're kicking off three messages today, Good Friday and Easter, that are centered around Passion Week. This morning's message is called The Final Countdown. The final countdown. Somebody give me a da-da-da-da. Anybody? Okay, come on. So the final countdown. We're kicking off Passion Week. What is on Jesus' mind as the clock ticks down to the cross? That's what we're talking about today. Can you imagine what would it be like for you to know you only have a few more days left on earth? Who are the people you'd spend time with? What are the things you would be doing? What are the issues that you would be confronting? How would you be preparing your loved ones for what's to come when you're gone? These are the sort of things we want to dive into in the heart of Jesus today in the Word as we look at his triumphal entry as he comes into the city of Jerusalem. I want to start with a question though. Have you ever thought you were ready for something only to find out you were utterly unprepared? Have you ever thought you were ready for something only to find out you were utterly unprepared? In the beginning of 2015, I was attending the University of Illinois, Chicago. So UIC, and if you know my story, I got saved at the end of 2015. So this was like the height of my drug addiction, alcohol addiction, living through the world. I'd been living in Nashville till the end of 2014 and decided I've got to move home, try and restore relationships with my family. I've burned every bridge I've ever made, and I've got to get my life together. So one of the things I decided to do, because I had dropped out of University of Illinois Business School a few years before that, was I got to get back in school. I got to get in college so I can get prepared to get me a job. Except the thing is, I had zero heart to actually be there. I was just doing it because I figured it was the right thing to do. And so that semester, I was still doing studio work downtown. I was working with a bunch of artists. And I would go downtown, and most days when I was there, rather than going to class, I would go to the studio or to artist's house and just get high and drink all day and make music and do music videos. and totally disregard class. And to be honest, because my heart wasn't really in it, I wasn't really thinking a whole lot about the consequences of my decisions. Just to cue you in on how bad it got, as a high school student, I had a 4.3 GPA. Pretty good student. This semester at UIC, I had a .67 GPA. Like, you have to try. That's almost a zero. Like, I literally passed one class. So it was rough. It's not just like, oh, no, it was bad. So I remember one class in particular. It was an anthropology class, and I literally never went to this class. But by the end of the semester, I had done just enough where if I got an A on the final exam, I could pass the class. Yeah, right? That's like, that's laughable. Like, whew, good for you, man. No, it was bad. So the finals are coming up, okay? And so I hear there's a finals review, and I hear, right, because I'm not in class to hear it. I hear there's a finals review on Wednesday. The final's on Friday, and so I figure I've got to be there. If there's any day to be in class, I've got to go so I can be prepared to take the exam. If I listen to all of the review and I learn the things that I haven't learned all semester because I've not been there, I can study for the next two days and I'll ace the final exam. So I show up on Wednesday, I park my car in the parking garage I usually did when I went there. I walk over to class, and a few of my friends are outside doing what we typically did when we would actually show up for class. We're smoking before class to go and have a good time while we're in there. So we're talking about the finals review. Now, these people were not doing quite as poorly as I was, but they weren't locked in either. So we're talking about it, and it's like, all right, guys, class is about to start, let's get in there. And we walk in right on time. And I sit down in the chair, and then reality sinks in. And I turn to my right, and I see that there's a Scantron and a final exam booklet that's being passed down the row towards me. I got the days wrong. It wasn't finals review day. It was time for the exam. I missed it. I was not only utterly unprepared to even get to the review, it was time for the exam. Time had run out. The exam was in front of me. I was totally unprepared. There's no warning, no time to fix it. It was here. And so my heart for you is very similar to what Jesus' was on Passion Week. He wants to make sure I want to make sure that you are ready. That you are prepared. And that you don't experience the shock that I experienced walking in that day on the final exam thinking I had more time to prepare. To get my life figured out. Time ran out. It was the final countdown. Time ran out. And time had run out quicker than I imagined it was going to be. So one thing I want you to take away, and it's going to apply to you differently, each individually, and let the Lord speak to you about what that is today. Very simple. Get ready. get ready. It's as simple as it is. If you take nothing out, this is my commission to you, the Lord's command to you. Jesus gives so many teachings about people who were unprepared. He comes, his coming back is longer than they expected it to be, and people fall asleep. They grow tired. They're not ready for the master when he returns. But guys, We need to be prepared when it matters most, which means we need to wake up from whatever we're sleeping through today. No more waiting. Today is the day to get ready. So as we enter Passion Week, Jesus knows the crowds, his disciples, even his closest friends, Peter, James, and John, are not as prepared as they think they are. So as we dive into this Passion Week narrative, I'm going to ask us three questions that we'll walk through. But let me pray over us and ask the Lord to move in this time. God, we pray that you would move in power. We pray that you would move mightily this morning. Lord, cast out any distractions. any discouragement, any distorted thinking that would keep us from hearing your voice as you call us to a next step in our faith. Whether it's somebody who's never placed their trust in you before and needs to give their life to you before it's too late. Whether it's somebody who has been wayward and wandering and needs to return back to you. or whether it's somebody who is on fire for you and needs to be prepared in the power of the Spirit to walk into what you have for them next. Lord, you have a word for each of us this morning. Let us hear it in Jesus' name. Amen. So the first question I have for you is this. Do you possess Jesus or just profess him? Do you possess Jesus or just profess him? R.C. Sproul is one of the greatest theologians of our time. He's since gone on to be with the Lord, but I've written down a quote for you because I think it's so powerful the way that he articulates it. Let me read it for you. He's talking about what it means to believe in the right doctrines, to have orthodox thinking, and yet have it have no impact on your life because you don't actually believe it. You just profess correctly what is true. He says this, we're not justified by the doctrine of justification by faith alone. You can believe the doctrine of justification by faith alone is true. You can give your intellectual assent to the truth of that idea. You may even contend with your all for the truth of justification by faith alone without having the faith that alone will justify you. Again, your justification is not accomplished by a profession of faith. And if anything, the evangelical world needs to learn that it has never learned. is that nobody is justified by a simple profession of faith. Professions of faith are good things, and those who believe are supposed to profess what they believe, but it's the possession of faith, not the profession of it, that translates a person from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. That's why we have to be so very careful when we preach the gospel so as not to give people a false sense of security by saying if you raise your hand or you come to an altar or if you sign a card that therefore you're going to get into the kingdom of God. That's why we have to construct all kinds of wacky theology to account for the false professions. It's not the doctrine that saves anybody. The doctrine simply describes what it is that does bring people into a state of justification. So he's saying it's not just about professing properly what is true. You have to possess the faith in it. I think this applies all the more to Jesus. You can't just profess faith. Jesus as who he is, if you have no possession of him in your heart, if you don't have the Holy Spirit in you which comes by being born again as a result of a genuine faith in him. So this is a warning. You can profess Jesus and not possess him. Could that be you? Could that be you today? Is that you? We can be confident in where we stand, but we have to watch out. And Jesus warns us about those who have the external appearance of placing their trust in him, and yet internally the content is totally void. It's empty. I see this in the crowd in the triumphal entry. If you remember the triumphal entry, Jesus comes into the city of Jerusalem and they are proclaiming that he is the king of Israel, the long-awaited Messiah, the son of David, the one who has been sent from God. I think these people got it down. I mean, they're able to recognize him. They're proclaiming him to be who he truly is. Let's look at this text really quick. John 12, verse 12 through 13 says this. The next day, the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. So they took palm branches and went out to meet him, crying out, Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel. And you think... Praise God they got it. By the end of Jesus' ministry, they finally figured out who he is, and they're shouting his praises. But the same crowd that shouts his praises on Sunday is the crowd that's shouting for his crucifixion on Friday. Whew. Are we Sunday Christians and we're either silent about Jesus by Friday or even worse, proclaiming negative things about him by Friday, either by our words or by our actions? We have to be careful. Because if you were there that day, I mean, these people weren't the religious leaders that overtly rejected him. They looked like they had it together. Tens of thousands of people proclaiming the praises of the Messiah, and yet they crucify him on Friday. Because when it came to it, the pressure was too much, the cost was too great, and because there was no internal substance to it, they crumble. Let that not be you. Is that you today? If it is, I have been there. Because the same time I was going through all of that nonsense at UIC and missing classes and failing all my exams, I was professing myself to be a believer in Jesus. With my words, I could articulate the gospel for years. I mean, I was 20 years old or 22 years old at that point. Since I was 15, 16, I was able to describe the facts of the gospel. I would go over to my friends' houses in high school and come out of Roman Catholicism. And so I would defend doctrine of literally the justification by grace through faith alone and not by works. I sang in the choir. I wore a suit and tie. I went to conferences to learn how to articulate my faith to people. And though I could proclaim it with my mouth, it had no possession of my heart. So I had no transformation in my life. So if that's you today, the best thing that you can do is admit it and move towards him. Don't go another moment, another day without coming to him truly. You need to get ready because time is running out. And Jesus, when he comes, is not going to come like the humble king that he was mounted on a donkey into the city of Jerusalem. He's going to come on a white horse to judge the living and the dead. We need to be ready. You need to be ready. Are you ready? You have to be prepared. We very well might be the generation that sees the return of Jesus, but we can't control that. What we can control is whether or not we're going to be a part of the generation that returns to Jesus. So will that be you today? Will you make that decision to finally come to him fully? I want to pray and just stop and allow the spirit to move for a second and give space for anybody who is in this place. The time is running out. There is not another moment to wait. Any of us could get in a car accident on our way home after church. Get mugged. We have no idea what is coming. So Lord, work in the hearts of our people. If there is anyone here who does not truly have a saving faith in you, Lord, move in their hearts to a point where they can't do anything but make a decision to draw near to you. God, move in the hearts of our people. Let us not be a people who profess and praise your name on Sunday and live like the rest of the world who is in rebellion against you by Friday. Lord, move in our hearts in Jesus' name. Amen. So, the question again is, do you possess Jesus or just profess him? The second question we're going to move to is, are you willing to live for Jesus and die for him? And the Sunday school answer is, well, yeah, of course. But when rubber meets the road, are you really living for him? Is he the center of your life that everything revolves around? Or are you at the center? Is your work at the center? Are your hobbies at the center? Are you living your life for Jesus? And are you willing to die for him? A few weeks ago, I made the statement that a life lived fully for Christ comes by death by a thousand daily decisions. Moment by moment, we live for Jesus, we live for others, we come third. God's first, others are second, we're third. Is that the style of your life? Or have you come back into the center and you're expecting God to revolve around you and others to revolve around you and serve you? It's easy to get there, guys. We all get there. If that's you, it's time to get ready and get reoriented. Are you willing to live and to die for Jesus? I think of Peter during the Passion Week. Peter was a firecracker. I think, to be honest, if I was one of the 12, I would have been Peter. Just like, need to stick a foot in my mouth more often than I desire to. Really excited about things. And then, to be honest, don't always live up to even the way that I perceive myself and I desire to be. Peter loved Jesus. He was ready to fight for him. I mean, literally, little sword, and he cuts off a guy's ear. It's like, dude, you have an army in front of you. What are you doing? It's crazy. But he loved Jesus. But the thing is, he was not as ready as he thought he was. Do you remember what happens after the Last Supper? Jesus has said, one of the disciples is going to betray them. And they're all like, oh, Jesus, not me. It's not me, is it? And then after this, Judas leaves, and he says to the 11 remaining, It says, all of you are going to forsake me tonight. Every single one of you is going to depart and leave and abandon me tonight. And what's their response? Oh, Jesus, never. We would never do that. We've been following you for three years. We've left everything. Jesus, we would never do that. And then there's Peter who takes it a step further. Even if all the rest of these, Lord, deny you, I will even give my life for you. Jesus says, will you give your life for me, Peter? I got chills thinking about this. Really, you think you'll give your life for me? Because by the time the rooster crows in the morning, you'll deny me three times. Deny that he knows him. I mean, literally, Peter is invoking curses upon himself. Let me be condemned to hell if I say that I know him because I don't. To a little girl. But the pressure was too great. Peter folds under the pressure of the situation when the cost becomes higher than his commitment. But he's saying he's ready. I would give my life for you. And to be honest, he probably wanted to. It's not like he was just lying out of his teeth. He wanted to give his life for Jesus, but ultimately when it came down to it, he wasn't ready. He wasn't prepared. He comes to the point where he has to make that decision. Am I going to stand here with Jesus and remain with him? When the army is here, the Roman cohort is here, they're arresting him. I could be arrested too. He dips. How do we do that in our decisions each day? Somebody brings up something at work, pokes at you, takes a jab at your faith, at your belief, maybe at you specifically for, you know, being crazy and, you know, so archaic to believe in such things. Are you going to run or are you going to stand with Jesus? Because it's not just a matter of some doctrine, some belief system that we leave there when we abandon a conversation like that. We're leaving Jesus here. There's a stark contrast between Peter and Jesus. Jesus knows the cross is coming. And it's not like it's all happy-go-lucky for him just because he's fully God and fully man. He is in turmoil. He is sweating drops of blood because of the stress of what is to come. Not just the physical anguish, but the torment of taking sin upon himself and experiencing relational separation from his father that he's never had before. It's quite literally killing him. But he is willing to go to the furthest extent, no matter the cost, because his heart was fully devoted. Undivided. Do we have undivided hearts? Let's look at this passage in Luke 14. We have to remember that Jesus calls us into the same pattern of living that he demonstrates to us on the cross. He says, "...whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple." This isn't for the super Christians. This isn't when you get to a place where you really understand the Bible. Bare minimum entrance requirement. Carry the cross around with you. No matter what I ask of you, I'm desiring your heart and your obedience, even if I ask you to give your life for me today. That's the starting point of discipleship. It's powerful stuff. But I think, unfortunately, we carry around so many other things in our hands that we struggle to pick up the cross, right? Recently, I had a privilege of speaking at a student evangelism conference, and I left at about 6.45 on a Saturday morning to go there. Everyone else was asleep at that point. But leaving the house woke Shiloh up. And so immediately I get in the car, I get a call from Nikki. She's like, hey, Shiloh's up. She's really upset. She wants to say goodbye to you. I was like, great. This is like, that's no better start to my day. I love this little girl. I want to come and see her. So I shut the car off, go inside. And by this time, Ezra has woken up because she's crying. And both of them are coming down our staircase from upstairs. We've got a cool, wide staircase. So both of them are just like walking down little by little. And Ezra is so excited to see me. And he comes and he jumps into my arms and just like bear hugs me around my neck and around my shoulder. And he's just so excited that I'm there. And he's fully embracing me. And I'm doing the same with him. Shiloh's just as excited to see me, but she's walking downstairs with two bottles in her hand. She's goofy. So she's got her two bottles that she likes to sleep with, and she comes down and she wants me to pick her up, but she's like this. So I'm embracing her, but she's carrying things in her hand so that she can embrace me back. Anyone ever hugged a person that's just like... It's awkward. You never want to be the sort of person who is giving love and not receiving it back. But we put the Lord in that situation all the time. He is pursuing us. He is loving us. But because we're holding other things in our hands that we're unwilling to let go, we can't take hold of him fully. We can't carry the cross in our hands and keep hold of the things of this world as well. We just can't do it. So what is it that you need to lay down today? Maybe you are an adamant, fervent follower of Jesus and you want more of him. And you say, Jesus, I want to live my life fully for you. It's not going to happen by just goodwill and good intention. If there's things that are keeping you from him, you have to let them go. So what are those things today? Are you ready? We need to get ready. Are you ready to let go of these things and to experience him because nothing you're holding on to will ever even be a thousandth of a percent of what he has in store for you and himself? The thing is, if you're not ready now, you won't be ready then. If he's calling you and prompting you to lay something down now and to live for him fully, don't wait another minute Make the decision now in your heart. Pray to him in your spirit right now and give it to him. Because if we wait until tomorrow, then we will get in the same pattern of waiting until the next tomorrow that we've typically gotten ourselves in. Anyone else been there? Anyone else there right now? Jesus calls for our all. He says, give everything to me because I gave everything for you. Are you willing to live for Jesus and die for him? Our last question is this. Are you reliant on the Spirit or on yourself? Are you reliant on the Spirit or on yourself? One of the biggest concerns that was on Jesus' heart was helping his disciples be prepared not just for the cross, but for when he returned to his Father in heaven after the resurrection and 40 days later when he ascends to heaven. His disciples are distraught. Can you imagine walking with Jesus for three years? doing life with him, living with him, eating all of your meals with him, ministering with him, hearing his very words day by day give you instruction, help turn you back when you've gone astray, and then imagine he says, I'm leaving. You'd be freaking out. They were. But Jesus says something that's incredible. He actually tells them, it's better that I go to be with the Father so that I can send the Holy Spirit to you. Because we might think, man, if I just had Jesus walking with me, if he could just instruct me and speak to me and help me to know what to do, I could really live the Christian life. Well, no, that's not Jesus thinking. He says, it's even better because I can live within you by means of the Holy Spirit and give you just as hyper, laser-focused, personal instruction and direction and guidance through him. Every single person who believes has that ability. It has the power that rose Jesus from the dead. The same spirit that enabled Jesus to do all of those miracles lives within you. An unlimited power source through the presence of God. So this is one of the main things that he talks about with his disciples the night that he is betrayed and the day before he's crucified. That tells us something. That tells us how vital that information is for us to know. Jesus, in the upper room discourse before he goes to the Garden of Gethsemane, is teaching his disciples and he says this to them. After telling them, there's many things that I want to teach you, but... can't do it right now, but let's look at this, John 16. He says, but when the spirit of truth comes, so he says, I want to teach you more, there's just not time though, but this is how I'm going to continue to teach you. When the spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears, he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. Do you see how personal that is? He will guide you into all truth. This word in the noun form, it's a verb, to guide, but in the noun form, it's like the way, the road. The people were called the way as they followed Jesus. This is guiding upon the way. This is what the Spirit is going to do. Not just for the disciples in general, not just for them individually, but it wore off after the apostles. This is for you today. This is for me today. He wants to guide you that intimately and personally. But can I tell you something that breaks my heart? We've pushed him to the side. The evangelical church in America especially does not know what it means to live a life in the spirit. We just don't. It's part of the reason I love 180. We have leaders and people who love the Spirit, who want to live in the Spirit. I know in the place that I was when I got saved, the Holy Spirit, I mean, he like inspired the Bible and he sealed us for salvation and that was it. It was just, you know, he did his work and he's good to read about in the books. But we need to learn what it means to be a people who walk in the Spirit, who live with Jesus. I had a dream at the end of November, and the Lord doesn't speak to me very frequently through dreams, but when he does, it's very, very evident. That morning at about 3.45, Nikki woke me up because I was having such like an audible reaction to this dream. This is terrifying. And I woke up, and this is what happened in the dream that led me to just seek the presence of the Lord for guidance, to understand. I was on a college campus, a crowd of people, and there was this guy who was evangelizing, sharing the gospel, engaging in apologetic arguments with people. I'm rooting for him. And then the scene shifts to him at a small round table with five or six other people. And he's flipping through the pages of the scripture and explaining the scripture to them. But then he says this. He says, this is the prophecy the Lord speaks against the church in America. And he flips to the book of Revelation and he puts his hand On Revelation chapter three, and he says, the church in America has become the church of Laodicea. And when he says this, everything, it flips to like, if you were like a camera and it was right over this and his hand is on it and everything just melts away around this passage. And that's when Nikki wakes me up. To be honest, I woke up, I couldn't remember exactly what was spoken against that church. There's a lot of things Jesus says to the seven churches. But I went downstairs and I said, God, if this is really from you, if this isn't just kind of like a crazy dream that I had, if this is from you, show me what you mean. Help me to understand. The church in Laodicea was known for three things. Its incredible banking industry, they were rich. Incredible medical advancements, they had created even an eye salve that would cure some blindness. And they had a black wool that was darker and blacker than any other material. garment in the world. So people came from all over the world for these three things. And so Jesus says to this church, he says, behold, you say, I have become rich, I have prospered, and I have need of nothing. But he says, but you don't realize that you are wretched and pitiable. You're not rich, you're poor. can't see you're blind and you're not clothed in these beautiful garments you are naked so he says come to me and receive what you think you have on your own you've become self-sufficient because you've fallen asleep in your pride and in your wealth and in your comfort this is the same passage where he says you've become lukewarm and so i will spit you out of my mouth Now, typically the way this is preached is we don't want to be lukewarm Christians. We've got to be on fire for Jesus, which will preach, but that's not actually what that passage is saying. Laodicea was on a plateau. It had no natural water source. So they had to pipe in cold and warm water. So from the mountains in one direction from the city of Heropolis, which had incredible hot springs, they would bring in hot water. And these things were incredible to use when they're hot. But by the time 10, 11 miles through aqueduct it gets to Laodicea, the waters become lukewarm. Because it's so far from the source and now so far from its usefulness. right? So too, the cold water coming from the city of Colossae, 12 miles away in the mountains. But by the time it gets to Laodicea, it's so contaminated with minerals and nasty things from the aqueducts, and it's become lukewarm. That it's like you take a drink of it and you'd rather not have water at all. It's disgusting. So you spit it out of your mouth because it's gotten so far from the source and so far from its usefulness. You see, this connects with how the church is condemned as having kicked Jesus out of their very midst. It says, behold, I stand at the door and I knock. And if anyone would let me in, I will come in and I will dine with him. This is Jesus talking to his church. Imagine Jesus knocking on the doors of the service right now saying, hey guys, I'm here. Let me in. Let me be a part of this. And I say, no, we don't need that, Jesus. We've got it figured out. We've got it programmed. We're pretty wealthy. We've got it all figured out. We'll talk to you after service. We'll talk to you after we're done fellowshipping. Has this not become the church in America? We have been so insulated by our success that we say to him, Jesus, we have need of nothing. We've got this. Let us not be those people. We need to get ready because Jesus has powerful work that he desires for us to do. But if we're trying to accomplish his mission that he has us on, literally his work that he's in us enabling us to do, if we try and do it on our own strength, we will utterly, utterly fall short. Always and only. Who is he calling you to? To be his love, to be his light in your marriage, in your workplace. Guys, we're in a spiritual war against an enemy that we cannot fight on our own. We need the power of the spirit. But the enemy knows that if we are not operating in the spirit, we're rendered ineffective. Because we can say all we want about what the truth is, but if the one who is truth that empowers us is not working through us, we're sitting on the sidelines even if we're playing in the game. He renders us ineffective. So I want to call you to wake up and to get ready. I'm going to call the worship team up here as we conclude. If you're the person who is here today and says, I've never truly given my life to Jesus. I'm not experiencing the life transformation that I see in others. I'm not experiencing the deep heart, love, and passion for Jesus that others have. Today is the day. Time has run out. And you've been graciously given another day, another Sunday to be prepared. But the exam is coming. Don't wait another day because you're not promised another hour. And if you're holding on to other things that are preventing you from carrying the cross and living for Jesus, lay them down. Be done with it. And never look back. And if you're ready to live a life empowered by God, to do the impossible, to live a life you never imagined was possible, take hold of the gift of the Spirit Jesus has graciously given you. Because we got work to do, guys. You ready? Lord, we love you and we thank you. You are so gracious to us. You don't want any of us to be unprepared. You have given us the opportunity to live for you, the Holy One. God, we did not deserve your love. You have lavished us in grace. And how could we not but respond by giving our hearts to you, by living our lives for you, by relying upon self, fully surrendered, and operating in the power of the Spirit. God, help us to be these people today. Because this world is so darkened it needs your light. But we ourselves must be on fire first. Ignite a flame in our hearts and help us to be the people you have called us to be by your power and for your glory. Jesus, you are holy and we praise you with our lips. But we want to worship you with our lives as well, God. We love you. We praise you in Jesus' name. Amen.
