You are invited to stop striving against God and instead rest in His compassion. Take a moment right now to confess your need and receive the peace that Jesus paid for on the cross. Let His love heal your suffering and transform your life today.
Welcome to the Real Church podcast. Our mission is for you to know the love of Jesus and live out your God given purpose. Now, join us and listen in to the latest message from pastor David John Phillips.
In *Mark-11:4-10* says, they went and found a colt outside in the street tied at a doorway. As they untied it, some people standing there asked, what are you doing untying that colt? A colt being a donkey. They answered as Jesus had told them to and the people let them go. When they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks over it, he sat on it.
Many people spread their cloaks on the road while others spread branches they had cut in the fields. Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David. Hosanna in the highest heaven. Let's pray.
Father, I thank you for who you are. *Lord God*, I thank you that you're good. Lord, I thank you that you love us. Father God, that you're with us. You're here.
Lord God, I thank you that you are our peace in the midst of the storm. Lord, you are our savior. You are our help in time of need. And, Lord, right now, I pray that that you impact us with your love and your goodness, Father, in such a way that everyone listening, Lord, let the words coming out of my my mouth not be my own words, but let them be your words, Father, so that everyone listening walks away impacted by who you are, Jesus. Father, I thank you.
*Lord, I thank you for what you're gonna do. In Jesus name, amen*. Well, thank you for tuning in to our online service today. My name is David John Phillips. I have the honor of getting to be the local pastor at Real Church right here in Clearwater, Florida.
A church that'll do whatever it takes for you to know the love of Jesus and live out your God given purpose. And I guarantee that you, if you engage right now and listen, you're gonna walk away from this moment, you're gonna walk away from this time with our worship and and the message. You're gonna walk away with a deeper understanding of how much God loves you and you're gonna walk away encouraged. *Amen*? So the verses I just read are it's the beginning of something called the passion of Christ.
Like we're starting today, we're starting passion week. It it runs from April 5 to April 11 this year. And passion week is that week right before the resurrection and it includes the the crucifixion of Jesus. And and you know, when I'm thinking about passion week and the passion of the Christ, if you've seen the Mel Gibson movie, but it's that's what it's called. When I think about that, I always wondered why is it called passion week?
Why is it called the passion of the Christ? Because in normal daily conversation, if we use the word passion, right, we think of something completely different and I'll keep it PG, but you know, we think of probably intimacy. Right? A passionate intimacy between 2 people. Or a lot of times in today's lingo, today's language, when we think of the word passion, we think of like a deep longing and a deep desire to do something, almost not being able to hold yourself back from doing things.
We see people that are very passionate. You know, sometimes I get passionate about Jesus and I almost jump off the edge of my seat when I'm speaking. That's kind of the things that I think about when I think about the word passion. But why really is it called passion week? Why is it called the passion of Christ?
Well, to understand that we have to go back. See, the our modern definition of passion only came in the last few hundred years. But passion comes from the **root Latin word** passio. Now stick with me here, but passio actually means *suffering*. And when that root Latin word, passio, was combined with the French word passion, We we we now, if you look in Webster's dictionary, when you hear the word passion or when you look up passion, it talks about the suffering of Christ.
It talks about Christ's crucifixion. So passion then means *suffering*. And it's interesting when we look at the word compassion. Right? Suffering and and then the prefix com, c o m, means together with.
So it's like compassion, how God defines himself and he defines himself as this compassionate God in Exodus-24. So so if God defines himself as compassionate, then that is who he is. And we think about the word compassion, calm the prefix together with and passion meaning suffering. Well, you look at the definition of compassion, it says a sympathetic consciousness of others distress together with a desire to alleviate it. Compassion, you have compassion on someone, you are sympathetic of their suffering, and you have a deep desire to to rid them of their suffering, to to to lessen their suffering.
So God being a compassionate God, loving God, he has a a sympathetic a sympathetic view towards your suffering and he has a deep desire, a deep desire to rid you of your suffering, to take away your suffering, to alleviate your suffering. Well, let's look at at Jesus to understand how the Father is compassionate. Because the Bible says that the Son, being Jesus, is the **exact representation** of the Father in bodily form. So if you wanna know what it means for the Father to be compassionate, then look at Jesus when he walked this earth and you can see how the Father is compassionate towards you. What that means for your daily life.
So let's go then some different places in the gospels where it talks about Jesus being compassionate. *Matthew-14:14*. You flip to your Bible or use your phone or look in the notes that we have on church online. It says, when Jesus landed he saw a large crowd and he had compassion on them and he healed their sick. So Jesus saw them *suffering* with sickness And he he saw their suffering and he had a desire to rid them of their suffering, his compassion, and so he healed them.
And so when we see Jesus, the exact representation of the Father in bodily form, we can know that the Father sees us. He sees us in the middle of our sickness, and he has a deep desire to rid you of your sickness, just like Jesus had compassion on them in their sickness. Some of you right now, you're watching today, you are sick in your body. Know that God loves you and he has compassion on you. You can see him next to you, that he's with you in the middle of your sickness, and he has a desire to rid you of your sickness.
Once you believe that he loves you and he wants to heal you and receive the fact that he's good. *Matthew-20:29-34*. Another place where we see the son Jesus being compassionate. Says, as Jesus and his disciples were leaving Jericho, a large crowd followed him. 2 blind men were sitting by the roadside.
And when they heard that Jesus was going by, they shouted, Lord, son of David, have mercy on us. The crowd rebuked them and told them to be quiet, but they shouted all the loud all the louder, Lord, Son of David have mercy on us. Some of us when we're in the middle of our suffering, in the middle of sickness, these these men were blind, they were handicapped. They were tired of of what was going on so much so that they didn't care what everybody else said. Everybody else tried tried to quiet them and say, no no no.
You you you know your place. And they said, no. I know my Jesus and I know what he can do and I'm gonna cry out all the more. Verse 32, Jesus stopped and called them. What do you want me to do for you?
He asked. It's interesting, Jesus knew what they wanted, but he asked them anyway. Sometimes the father wants to hear us say, ask for what we need. It just it encourages relationship. Verse 33, they said, Lord, they answered, we want our sight.
Jesus had compassion on them and touched their eyes. Immediately, they received their sight and followed him. So we see that Jesus had compassion on those that were sick, and here he had compassion on the handicapped. He saw your suffering in the same way he has compassion because the Son is the exact representation of the Father in bodily form. We know that our Father God has compassion on some of you who are watching your handicapped.
He has compassion on your handicappedness. And he has a desire to alleviate your suffering, to heal you, saying on earth as it is in heaven. Jesus is right with you and he loves you. In *Luke-7:13* says this, actually it's certain verse 12, As he, Jesus, as he approached the town gate, a dead person was being carried out, the only son of his mother and she was a widow and a large crowd from the town was with her. When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her and he said, don't cry.
See Jesus had *compassion* on her in the middle of her sorrow. It says, then he went up and he touched the beer that they were carrying him on and the bearer stood still and he said, young man I say to you get up. The dead man sat up and began to talk and Jesus gave him back to her mother, his mother. The same way, some of you are full of sorrow. You're full of sadness because of circumstances that have gone and on in your life.
Maybe it's a death in the family. Maybe it's a lost job. Maybe it's just not knowing about your future. Not knowing what's coming. You're full of sorrow because of whatever it is.
Know in the same way Jesus is with you in the midst of the sorrow and he sees your sorrow and he has compassion on you. He he's sympathetic with your sorrow with a deep desire to alleviate, to rid you of your sorrow so you can experience his peace. *God* loves you. Once you receive, believe and receive that he's with you and he sees you. Compassion.
In Mark-6:34, says this, when Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things. **sheep without a shepherd** are lost going from 1 place to another and maybe in the same way as these people, you feel lost going from 1 place to another not knowing what the future holds. See the Bible says, my people perish are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Jesus had great compassion on them because of their lack of knowledge they were going to be destroyed.
And so what he did, he began to teach them and give them a knowledge of himself, a knowledge of his goodness. The Bible says, if you know the truth then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. Seek after Jesus and know that he has compassion on us in our ignorance and our not knowing what's next. And he wants to show us he doesn't wanna be veiled to us. He wants to us us to experience the knowledge of him so that we can have faith to walk forward and be sturdy in every step that we take knowing that we're going in the right direction because we're following his voice, our shepherd.
Problem is with sheep. A lot of times we think that we should follow 1 sheep or another. We should follow 1 person or another. A sheep follows. They have a pack mentality much like humans.
And there's a an example in 2,006 in Eastern Turkey, 1 sheep of a flock of 400 sheep saw a a ledge that was 15 foot across. But there was the problem was there was a deep ravine. Right? And so this that 1 sheep who was kind of the leader of the flock tried to jump across the 15 foot ravine and plunge to its death. The sheep were following the wrong leader and 1 x 1 each sheep following that leader tried to jump across the 15 foot ravine and all 400 sheep plunged to their death.
Don't follow the wrong leader. Follow Jesus. He is the good shepherd and he doesn't wanna lead you to death. He wants to lead you to experience his life. That's amazing.
*Mark-8:2-3* says this, I have compassion for these people. They have already been with me 3 days and have nothing to eat. If I sent them home hungry, they will collapse on the way because some of them have come a long distance. See Jesus not only had compassion on those who were sick, he not only had compassion on those who are handicapped, he not only had compassion on those who were lost, who who didn't know where they were going on going in life, He also had compassion on people's physical needs. Some people, maybe you're watching right now and you're homeless.
Maybe you're watching right now and you don't have much food. Maybe you don't have toilet paper in the midst of the coronavirus. Jesus cares. He sees you in the midst of your need and he is your provider. Right?
Jesus had compassion on them. He saw he was sympathetic towards their suffering, towards their physical hunger, And he did what it took to alleviate, to take away their need, to give them what they needed. Jesus is with you in the midst of of some of you who are going through physical issues where you're hungry or or you need financially, you need it. God is with you. He's your provider.
You can trust him. Run to him. Let go of control and say, Jesus I trust you. So now, we get to where we started. Passion week.
Why is it called passion week? And we've covered that passion means suffering and compassion is an understanding of our suffering with a desire to rid us of our suffering, a desire to alleviate our suffering, to to take away our suffering. And God knew that sin was causing the greatest suffering of all. It was causing a conflict with himself. And because of our sin we had guilt and shame.
We were called enemies of God, and this caused the greatest suffering in the world. And God being love, see the characteristics of love, of God, are joy and peace. And so you can't experience real, true, undying, never ending love, and you can't experience a joy that passes understanding, and a peace that passes understanding regardless of what circumstances come without knowing have a relation having a relationship with God. Right? So often in life, and I don't know about you, but myself, I know it's happened so so many times in life.
We find that our joy and our peace are stolen because of what is going on in our life. Our love grows cold based on how we're treated, based on what happens in the day, based on if what we were banking on, what we are counted on actually comes comes to pass. If our 4 0 1 k grows goes up, right? If our if we get that next promotion or this or that or the other. But sometimes because of sin, when those things are taken from us or when things don't go our way, we experience rage or depression, or anger.
And when we screw up, when we mess up in our life, when we don't, study for that test, and we we fail it, or or when we when we, fail in our relationship with our wife, or with our grandkids, or with our kids. A lot of times we experience guilt, we experience shame, And our soul, we find our soul under a weight that we have grown accustomed, we've grown used to bearing, but it's a weight that we're never we were never created to bear. We were created to put that weight on our creator's shoulders and experience freedom. See the Father, the reason it's called passion week, is the Father saw our *suffering* and in his compassion for us even though we repeatedly chose not God, he sent his 1 and only son Jesus to free us from the biggest form of suffering, separation from God. Not knowing him.
See, there's a lot of people that believe in him, but even demons believe. Just because you believe in God doesn't mean you know him. Because to know him is to experience his love, his joy, and his peace, is to have a relationship. I can't help but think of Jesus' prayer in the Garden Of Gethsemane. In Matthew-26:38-39.
This is Jesus. And remember, passion, this is in the middle of passion week, which means passion means from passio means suffering. And *compassion* is a desire to rid us of our suffering because he's sympathetic. He sees us where we are. Verse 38, Jesus is says, my soul is overwhelmed with sorrow.
This is Jesus. Even to the point of death, stay here and keep watch with me. Going a little further, he fell on his face to the ground and prayed, Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will. In verse 42, he went away a second time and prayed, my father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.
In verse 44, he left them and went away once more and prayed a third time saying the same thing, Father, if it's possible for this cup to pass from me, let it happen. But if not, not my will but yours be done. What is Jesus saying? What is the cup that he's talking about? See, Jesus, he's talking about some suffering that he was gonna go through in our place, so we wouldn't have to experience the suffering, but ex we could experience his joy and his peace in the midst of everything that's going on.
See Jesus knew that he was gonna be whipped with a cat of 9 tails. Jesus and what is a cat of 9 tails? It's not like a a meow kitty cat, right? Not that. Jesus knew he was gonna be whipped with this leather strap with 9 different places on in each place, each strap coming off had had glass and shards of glass and shards of metal.
And Jesus knew that they were gonna whip him 39 times with that. And the the pieces of shard and and metal and glass were gonna dig into his skin and rip his flesh off even to the point of not being recognizable as a man. Jesus knew he was gonna go through that suffering taking in his body our sicknesses so that we could experience his life and his peace and his health. Jesus knew that he was gonna carry the cross through the city naked, bruised, broken and bleeding. He knew that the very people that were were screaming, Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna as we just read before.
He knew that those very people would be screaming, crucify him, and mocking him to his face, and looking upon his nakedness, and and and throwing shame at him, and spitting in his face, and and he knew that he was gonna be in that taking our shame for our past. He was taking our suffering, alleviating us of that so we could experience his goodness. Jesus knew that. He knew that he was gonna be taking what we deserved. But see, don't even think that that was the reason that Jesus was asking if this cup could be taken.
All of those he was doing for us, laying his life down, but the the real reason, passion, suffering, was Jesus was gonna take on the greatest form of suffering that anyone could ever experience. See, a type of of of thing Jesus had never I mean, since time began, even before time, Jesus the Son existed with the Father and had always been in unity with the Father. But see Jesus in a moment, on the cross, Jesus was gonna be forsaken by his father. Jesus cried out and I believe this is what Jesus was praying in in the Garden Of Gethsemane when he said, may this not happen because it's the deepest form of suffering that we could ever experience. A complete and total separation from God.
Jesus, while he's on the cross he cries out, my God, my God, why have thou forsaken me? In that moment, his father wasn't his father anymore. He didn't call him father, he called him God. And he turned his the the father turned his back on the son. He forsook the son.
Jesus, why? Because in that moment Jesus was becoming, he had become your sin. He'd become my sin. He had become everything that that causes separation from God. In that moment, the light of the world, Jesus Christ became darkness and darkness filled the land.
In that moment, the the very 1 who holds the world together became sin and it shook the foundations of the world and there was an earthquake. In that moment, the father turned his back on the son and that is the greatest form of suffering we could ever experience. Because when you experience complete separation from God, which is for those who reject Jesus in this life. They reject the free gift and they end up in hell completely separated from their father in heaven. Not being able to experience joy and peace and love, but experiencing torment and hate and hell for the rest of their lives.
Jesus experienced that on your behalf so you could experience love, joy, and peace for all eternity. So you could experience a relationship with the God of the universe. His passion, his *suffering* was when Jesus was forsaken by his father so that you would never have to be forsaken by him. So that even when you're faithless, he remains faithful. So that you could experience unconditional unconditional love despite your failures.
Jesus paid the price for you. See, passion week started off with Jesus riding on a donkey. Why? Why wouldn't Jesus ride in on a big white stallion? That's what the people wanted.
We see that because Jesus was proclaiming something. Riding in on a donkey meant something. In Mark, if we go back to where we started, in Mark-11, in verse 9, or verse, sorry, verse 8. Many spread their cloaks on the road while others spread branches they had cut in fields. Those branches, those are palm branches it says in John.
He's riding on a donkey. Those who went ahead of him and those who followed shouted, Hosanna. What does Hosanna mean? Hosanna means save us, Save us. Save us.
Palm branches, what were they declaring when they were waving palm branches around? Palm branches they waved when a conqueror or a king came into town. They were saying, save us from this Roman occupation. We want you to save us from what's physically in front of us. And Jesus is saying, I'm coming in on a donkey.
He wasn't coming on a white stallion. A white stallion would have would have meant he's coming to conquer, and he will come 1 day to conquer. He will come riding on a white stallion, and it will all be over, and every knee will bow. Even atheists, even those who've rejected God will bow and say and confess Jesus as Lord. But then it'll be too late.
Don't wait for then. See Jesus was coming now. Now is the time of the donkey. Now is the time Jesus was coming in riding on a donkey cause a donkey meant something specific. What did it mean?
Number 1, Jesus was saying by riding in on that donkey, I'm here to save you from your suffering. I'm the Messiah. He was fulfilling prophecy written hundreds and thousands of years before. But number 2, riding in on a donkey symbolized that the king came in peace. He was coming in peace.
See Jesus was coming proclaiming, riding in on a donkey. He was proclaiming, I'm coming to bring peace between you and God. You and my Father in heaven. I'm going to become the sin that you have lived your whole life so that you can receive and become my righteousness. So that when my Father in heaven looks at me, he's gonna see your sin and punish me for your sin so that when you receive that, when he looks at you, he's gonna see my righteousness.
He's gonna see my goodness. I'm gonna restore peace between you and God. See many of us right now are living as if we're at war with God, but God's not at war with us anymore. *2 Corinthians-5:19* says that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people's sins against them. See, God has already counted your sins against Jesus.
It's time for you to stop being at war with God and receive the fact that Jesus paid the price for your sin. And to receive the fact that God's not at war with you. He wants peace. He wants you to receive peace and receive a relationship with him. There's many people that are watching right now that have never received a relationship with Jesus.
It's time. It's time right now. If that's you, maybe you feel, you just know deep down in your heart, there's something in your you you have a burning in your stomach that's drawing you. You you just you can't get this out of your mind. What this guy's saying is true.
That's God and he's drawing you into relationship with himself. He's saying, look, I sent my son to die in your place so that you can receive the gift of righteousness, so that you could receive forgiveness that I've already paid for, so that I can know you, heavenly Father, with you as a son or as a daughter, and you can experience my goodness. You can know my voice and walk with me for the rest of your life. If that's you, if that's you, would you would you just indicate? Maybe if you're on our church online platform, if you're watching there, just click the raise your hand button or comment, that's me.
Would you indicate in some way? Just right where you are, if you put your hand, if you're ready to receive Jesus right now for the first time, you want to receive him and start a relationship with God. Wherever you are, sitting down in front of your computer on the couch, in the in in coffee shop, wherever you are, put your hand over your heart and just pray this with me right now. God loves you so much. Say this, say Jesus, I've been living for me and it's time to live for you.
Jesus, right now, when I ask you forgive me of my sin, I thank you that you died on the cross in my place. Go ahead, say it out loud. And I thank you that you rose again so that I could experience your life. Right now, I confess you are my Lord. Teach me what it means to live for you.
Jesus, I receive you into my heart. I invite you, Come into my life and make me new. And every 1 of you that's watching right now, whether you just gave your life to Jesus or you've been watching for a long time, and are you been you've followed him for a long time. I want you just to raise your hands and say this, confess it out loud. Confess means to agree.
Say this, thank you Jesus that I'm new. Thank you that I'm forgiven. Thank you that I'm loved. Thank you that I'm in right standing with you because of Jesus. Not because of what I've done, but because of what you've done.
Teach me to become your love. Teach me to live for you. Give me a desire to get into your word. Give me a desire to share your love with others in the midst of this. Give me a desire to see your goodness in the midst of the pain in the world, knowing that you've overcome it.
Right now, some of you are sick and you need healing. So just say this, I received your sacrifice. Your broken body was paid for my healing. In the name of Jesus, be healed. Whatever it is, be healed.
Some of you are struggling with depression and and and and pain or sorrow. He is your peace. Say this, in the name of Jesus, I receive you as my peace. He's gonna fill you with peace right now. Some of you have addictions.
He's gonna break it because he took the pain of your addiction already and he took your shame that's keeping you in that addiction. Just say this right now, God I give you just pick your hands right here like you're you're giving him that weight. I give you that addiction. And in the name of Jesus, addictions are broken. You are free.
Father, I I just pray for each 1 that's watching. You bless them, fill them with your presence. Let them experience your love like never before, And let them know that your your plans are are to prosper them, to bless them, to to give them hope and a future and a good name. *Lord God*, let them rest in your love.
Thanks for listening to the Real Church podcast. If you have questions, comments, or I'd like to get to know us, be sure to check us out on social media by searching Real Church Clearwater or visit us online at www.realchurch.us. If you'd like to play a part in what we're doing, you can do so right where you are. Your prayers are powerful and effective. You can also be a part through giving.
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