A Road of Sorrow! (Sermon Audio)

This is the audio from the February 26, 2023 sermon, “A Road of Sorrow: A Time to WEEP!”, shared by Tom Lemler at the Deer Run Church of Christ.

Text: Luke 19:39-46

“As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it.”
Luke 19:41 (NIV)

Today began a sermon series with a focus on The Road to Resurrection. Each week of this series will consider a different glimpse of the life of Jesus during His final week leading up to His death, burial, and resurrection. The series opens with a look at an event that is often overshadowed by the more joyful events of the triumphal entry. On a day that was filled with much promise and celebration, we find Jesus looking out over Jerusalem and weeping. As we walk the road to resurrection with Christ, we find that this road of sorrow often brings us face to face with a time to . . .

Worship. Luke 19:39-40
- I suspect that the attempts of the religious leaders to silence the crowd’s worship of Jesus contributed to the sorrow He felt as Jesus looked out over Jerusalem. Yet, on our road of sorrow, worship is a powerful way to help us endure the difficulties of life. Jesus knew who He was and the worship that he deserved . . . and knew that His Father would see to it that appropriate worship would be expressed even if it required the rocks to cry out. When our road of sorrow produces genuine worship of God, we find ourselves being lifted by the One we cry out to.
Envision. Luke 19:41-42
- Sorrow has a way of obscuring our vision and even blinding us to the reality of both our situation and our hope. As Jesus wept, He longed for the people of His day to see what could be theirs if only they would open their eyes and turn to Him. When we see our road of sorrow as part of the road to resurrection, we allow God’s Spirit to help us to see beyond the temporary to that which is eternal.
Escape. Luke 19:43-44
- Godly sorrow is designed by God to produce repentance and when we turn to God in repentance, we find a way of escape exists not so much from our circumstances, but from the despair the enemy wants to bring upon us because of those circumstances. As Jesus wept over Jerusalem, He offered Himself as the way of escape from the judgment to come. When our road of sorrow fills us with great discouragement, God want to use that season of life to draw us even nearer to Himself so that we would take refuge in Him.
Pray. Luke 19:45-46
- It appears to me that the road of sorrow traveled by Jesus was amplified by the way people had become disconnected from God. Even the place that had been designated for prayer and the worship of God had been turned into something ordinary with a focus on self rather than God. As you consider the response of Jesus to those who had turned the temple into something profane, it is important to note that in Christ the temple of the living God is no longer made with bricks and stone, but with the people who belong to Him. When the road of sorrow tempts us to treat our self and others in inappropriate ways, God calls us to make His house a house of prayer.