Good morning, everyone! I’m glad that you’re here with us today. So far this year, we’ve been talking through Acts each week. Seeing how the people of God, these followers of Jesus were attentive to what the Holy Spirit was doing in their midst, they were attentive to where God might be directing them to go, to whom God may want them to go. And we sort of saw that culminate in Acts 15 as the people of God are discerning together what it means for the body of Christ to transcend this ethnic and cultural divide between Jews & Gentiles.

From now until Easter we are going to move a little deeper into this theme of Noticing… Each week, we’re going to talk through a moment in the life of Jesus, hold it up, and examine what it might show us about the nature of God, and what that might mean for us. We’ll ask the question: how do we see that playing out in our lives? Each week, the invitation will remain to share how we are noticing God in our midst, Not just in the big flashy things, but in the small moments when another kid showed kindness to our kid, when someone in our life made a decision to make more room for Jesus, when we felt love on a hard day. In doing this, we are hoping that we will grow more aware of God’s work around us, so that we can join into that good work and bear witness to it.

Let’s pray before we continue this morning:

Lord, make us more aware of Your presence here in our midst. Help us to expect your work and movement in our homes, neighborhoods, and workplaces. Today, I just ask that you will speak, that we will receive a message from you that sinks deep down into our hearts and changes us from the inside out. If anything this morning is from me and not from you, God I just ask that it will fall out of our minds. Thank you for Jesus, and in His Name we pray, Amen.

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Luke 13:31-35

³¹ At that time some Pharisees came to Jesus and said to him, “Leave this place and go somewhere else. Herod wants to kill you.”

³² He replied, “Go tell that fox, ‘I will keep on driving out demons and healing people today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will reach my goal.’ ³³ In any case, I must press on today and tomorrow and the next day—for surely no prophet can die outside Jerusalem!

³⁴ “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing. ³⁵ Look, your house is left to you desolate. I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’”

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This story comes at a point in Jesus’ life and ministry where Jesus has set his sights on Jerusalem, and he’s heading there, knowing what lies ahead. In this Lenten season, we sort of join Jesus on this journey as we read along. We know what lies ahead. This epic moment at the cross where the ultimate showdown occurs: the powers of the world, the rulers and authorities do their best, but its in this moment, in Jesus’s willingness to endure and in God’s great love, that God wins. God triumphs over death at the cross and proves it at the resurrection. So we can think of all of these moments from Jesus life we’ll talk about from now until Easter as prequels, as these foreshadowing scenes as we walk to the cross and the empty tomb together.

So here’s Jesus as he’s traveling south towards Jerusalem. He’s performed all these miracles in the northern part of Israel and he has this following. He’s doing all of this teaching about prayer and against greed. And in this moment, we see these Pharisees come to Jesus and tell him to leave, that he is in danger. And we don’t know if this is warning from the Pharisees where they are legitimately concerned for Jesus’ safety. We don’t know if this is more of a threat from the Pharisees, but what’s important to note is that Herod is the person who they say wants to kill Jesus.

Now Herod is in this position of power, but it comes with a catch. He is in charge of the Jews in his jurisdiction of Judea, and at the same time he is having to answer to the Roman Empire. He’s sort of in this precarious middle man position. Herod has an interest in maintaining the status quo because the status quo keeps him in power. Jesus is a threat to that. He’s gaining all these followers. There’s people changing their hearts and minds, their allegiances, people envisioning a life for themselves and for Israel that is better than the one they currently inhabit. This is a problem for Herod. He’s not that different than folks in our world today who grab power and are willing to use whatever means necessary to hang onto it. Not so much concerned for the needs of the people they rule over, but very concerned for their own position, their own bottom line.

And we see Jesus’ response: You let Herod know that I’m going to keep doing what I do. I’m going to keep healing people, keep exorcising demons, I will continue to do what I have come to do until it is accomplished. This response from Jesus is strikingly resolute to me. If I got the message: Governor Bill Lee has heard what’s been happening in Hermitage, and he doesn’t like it. He wants you to end it, or else, I’d be taken aback. I’d have to go home and think about that one for a while. But Jesus knew that his purpose, his mission was so much bigger than the rulers and authorities of this world.

Then Jesus sort of comments on the history of Israel. That this is nothing new. God has been sending prophets to Jerusalem since its founding 1000 years earlier, and time and time again, God’s prophets have been written off, persecuted, and even killed. Looming large in Jesus’ mind is probably his cousin John the Baptist, who was beheaded by Herod. To Jesus, I can imagine this is a devastatingly sad state of affairs. For 1000 years, God has been sending prophets to the people of Israel, hoping that they will simply return to a right relationship with God, but they keep choosing other things. God wants to protect the people of Israel, to gather them like a mother hen gathers her chicks, but the people continually choose to be close to and experience security in other things.

Jesus knows, the only security the people of Israel need is found in God. Likewise, the only security we need is in God. But I think all to often, we decide that that’s not enough security for us, and that’s where the tension lies. We look for security everywhere else. This need to feel safe fuels our compulsion towards making sure that other people like us at all times, making sure that our stocks aren’t falling, keeping that cable news running so we know everything at all times.

In this story, Herod is the fox in the henhouse of Israel. He’s motivated to intervene in this momentum of God and the ministry of Jesus to protect himself and his position. But Herod is not ultimately the issue. Swap Herod out with someone else and there would be someone else or something else getting in the way of the people and a right relationship with God. Paul speaks to this in Ephesians 6:

¹² For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

Herod’s not helping the situation, but he’s not the main issue. Herod’s just a king doing what kings do.  This is a pattern. The people of Israel have been in this cycle for years. They have not been willing participants in an intimate partnership with God for the sake of the world. The struggle is not against Herod, its against what Herod represents: the powers of the world with whom we far too often cozy up to.

Yes, I am talking about how we mistakenly hope for these broken political systems to take care of us, but I’m also talking about how we believe that if I just had more money I’d be safe, and if I just had a better job, I’d be happy. I’m talking about how we take pride in our busyness when hurry is this great enemy of deep and abiding relationship with God. I’m talking about how we put all of this energy into the culture wars, pressuring others to become more like us instead of us focusing on becoming more like Jesus.

When we do these things, the Enemy has us right where he wants us. Love of other things ahead of Jesus, constant distraction, a full calendar with no room for God to add things to it. That’s no way to have a relationship with God.

What we learn from Jesus in this story is: God wants a relationship with us. God wants to take care of us. God wants to be with us. Jesus is the representation of God’s divine love for us and desire to be with us. Immanuel: God with us.

The question for us today is: will we open the door of our hearts, and minds, and calendars, and wallets to this God that wants to be with us? Jesus wants to be the Lord of our life, will we let him?

If the answer to that question is yes: then we must begin to embody the lifestyle of Jesus. Spend time in community with others, spend time alone in the quiet places with God, and do these things regularly. Lead others by example as we let go of those things in our life that keep getting in the way, things that are sucking away at God’s gifts to us of time and energy. A relationship with God through Jesus is not something we can simply add into our schedule or to-do list, it’s something we must orient our lives around.

The Creator of the universe knows you and wants to be known by you. That’s why Jesus came, to bring about a New Kingdom where all of us are gathered together in relationship with God. But God doesn’t force it on us. We get to choose. Will we choose to let Jesus pull us in close?

There’s these moments in our relationships that affect the intimacy level of a relationship. They affect our emotional proximity to each other. When I’m in our living room relaxing on the couch with the basketball game on and Wesley is playing on the floor, and he asks me to get down on the floor and play, I have a choice to make. Do I stay zoned out or do I engage? When we’re in our bedroom, and Madeline is telling me about her day before bed, do I keep scrolling, or do I put my phone away and connect? I can’t say I always engage in those moments like I should, but you know what, I never regret when I lean in to those moments, those bids for connection.

In our human relationships, if we don’t rise to meet the moment enough, those relationships sever and break apart over time. Fortunately for us, God’s love for us doesn’t diminish, no matter how many times we don’t rise to the moment. No matter how many times we have failed to respond to God’s invitation, God is ready and waiting for us to embrace new life. Jesus coming to earth was this great invitation to us into a loving relationship with the Almighty God, let’s respond to that. Maybe the right response for you is baptism where you publicly name Jesus as the Lord of your life. Maybe the right response for you is sitting down and taking things off your calendar. Maybe the right response for you is deciding to read the Bible for the first time ever, or the first time in a long time. Whatever that means to you, the invitation from Jesus is to come and be pulled close. Lean in.

As we go to the Table this morning, we remember Jesus, who was committed to us to the point of experiencing death on a cross, so that we can have life. When we share in this bread and juice together, we proclaim Jesus’ death and resurrection, and we hope for Jesus to come again soon. All are welcome at these tables.

Let’s pray:

Lord, thank you for Jesus. Thank you that you want to be with us no matter how many times we’ve resisted you and how many times we’ve chosen other things. Help us to see that the best life is in you, that your ways are better than ours, and help us to look to you only for joy, hope, and peace. Help us to be more like Jesus. In His Name we pray, Amen.

This sermon was delivered on March 16th, 2025 at the New Garden Campus of Woodmont Hills Church. You can watch it here.