SPEAKER_00: Well, good morning.
SPEAKER_00: It is so good to see all of you here worshiping with us today.
SPEAKER_00: I'd like to welcome all of you at this campus, but I also want to welcome all of you at all of our campuses and venues.
SPEAKER_00: And those of you that are worshiping with us online.
SPEAKER_00: If I haven't a chance to meet you personally, I'm Tony Walliser, one of the pastors here at Silverdale.
SPEAKER_00: And I have the privilege today to share with you God's Word.
SPEAKER_00: So this is what I encourage you to do.
SPEAKER_00: Go and take your Bibles and open up in the New Testament to the book of Matthew, Matthew chapter 21, and um turn to Matthew 21, but also do this.
SPEAKER_00: Take out these Bible study outlines that we provide for you so you can follow along and take notes as we study God's Word together.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you've been here with us for um this year, you're like, wait a minute, I thought we're teaching through the book of Philippians.
SPEAKER_00: We're not done yet.
SPEAKER_00: You're exactly right.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna get back to Philippians whenever we finish the Easter season.
SPEAKER_00: But for the next three weeks, we're gonna be looking at an Easter series that I've entitled Your Kingdom Come.
SPEAKER_00: And what we're gonna do is we're gonna show how Jesus presents himself as the king, the king that needs to be a part of our lives.
SPEAKER_00: And the issue is not that Jesus is the king or not, it's whether or not we recognize him as the king.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what the significance of Palm Sunday is.
SPEAKER_00: Now, Palm Sunday is what we'll celebrate next weekend.
SPEAKER_00: But it actually kicks off the beginning of what we call holy week.
SPEAKER_00: It's the last week of Jesus' life and ministry before his death and then resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: But Palm Sunday is a very significant day.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, all four Gospels mention the events of Palm Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: Why is that significant?
SPEAKER_00: Because typically each one of the gospels will give you a different aspect of Jesus' life.
SPEAKER_00: And so when all four gospels and all four um eyewitness testimonies are all speaking about the same thing, you know this is a very significant day.
SPEAKER_00: Now it actually begins with Jesus sending two of his disciples to a village to get a donkey for him to ride on.
SPEAKER_00: Now, what's interesting about that is because he says, okay, if they say to you, hey, why are you taking my donkey?
SPEAKER_00: you just simply say, The Lord has need of it.
SPEAKER_00: And guess what?
SPEAKER_00: It worked.
SPEAKER_00: Now I thought about that.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: What if I go to a car dealership and um I jump in a new car and I start to drive away and they go, Hey, what are you doing?
SPEAKER_00: Still in that car?
SPEAKER_00: The Lord has need of it.
SPEAKER_00: And they let me keep it.
SPEAKER_00: That would be pretty cool, right?
SPEAKER_00: Well, that don't apply it that way, okay?
SPEAKER_00: All right.
SPEAKER_00: The fact is, so they bring this donkey to Jesus, right?
SPEAKER_00: Check it out, look what happens next, verse 7.
SPEAKER_00: They brought the donkey and the colt, then they laid their clothes on them, and he sat on them.
SPEAKER_00: A very large crowd spread their clothes on the road.
SPEAKER_00: Others were cutting branches from the trees and spreading them on the road.
SPEAKER_00: Then the crowds who went ahead of him and those who had followed shouted, Hosanna to the son of David.
SPEAKER_00: Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Hosanna in the highest heaven.
SPEAKER_00: When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in an uproar saying, Who is this?
SPEAKER_00: Good question.
SPEAKER_00: It is the question that all of humanity around the world has to answer.
SPEAKER_00: Who is Jesus Christ?
SPEAKER_00: Who's Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Your eternity, your eternity is staked on that answer.
SPEAKER_00: Who is Jesus Christ?
SPEAKER_00: Well, let me tell you, he is your King and Lord.
SPEAKER_00: You've got to make him your King and Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: But the problem is that you have thousands of people worshiping Jesus as the King, and yet in a few days they will be yelling, crucify him.
SPEAKER_00: So how do you go from a multitude praising Jesus to a mob crucifying Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: How does that happen?
SPEAKER_00: I'll tell you how it happens.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the king, but he's not the kind of king they were wanting.
SPEAKER_00: Now, the Jewish people, they were expecting a Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: God had predicted it over and over again.
SPEAKER_00: Moses had said, God's going to send another Moses, a teacher, a deliverer.
SPEAKER_00: King David said, There's one coming of my descendants, which Jesus is, who's going to sit on the throne forever.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, all the prophets were pointing, and everybody's anticipating, okay, the Messiah is about to come.
SPEAKER_00: And so then Jesus comes on the scene and he teaches like nobody's ever taught before.
SPEAKER_00: He's working miracles like nobody had ever seen before, right?
SPEAKER_00: And just a few days before this event, he raises a prominent man called Lazarus from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: Lazarus had been dead for four days.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus brings him back to life.
SPEAKER_00: The place is going wild.
SPEAKER_00: It's a frenzy of fervor and excitement about Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Because they're like, oh my goodness, Jesus could be the Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, they were anticipating this.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because Daniel chapter 9, I've taught on this in the past.
SPEAKER_00: Daniel 9 is a remarkable prophecy because it gives events in history and then gives dates after that.
SPEAKER_00: And so Daniel chapter, if you want a deep dive, you can look at this book, The Coming Prince, the Marvelous Prophecy of Daniel's 70 Weeks.
SPEAKER_00: It's written by scholar Robert Anderson.
SPEAKER_00: And what he did, he's a mathematician, and what he does is he does calculations.
SPEAKER_00: And if his calculations are correct, he basically says, okay, we know Daniel predicted the decree of the rebuilding of Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: We know that happened March 14th, 445 BC.
SPEAKER_00: You calculate Daniel's 70 weeks, and that happens to be 173,880 days, which happens to land when?
SPEAKER_00: April 6, 32 A.D., the very day Jesus is riding into Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: And so everybody's like, they're anticipating.
SPEAKER_00: They believe the Messiah is supposed to be coming.
SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus comes as the King.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody's anticipating it.
SPEAKER_00: So why do they five days later yell, crucify him?
SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus is not the kind of king they're expecting.
SPEAKER_00: Imagine like this, you know, children, they anticipate Christmas.
SPEAKER_00: They're wanting, they're longing for Christmas and certain Christmas gifts.
SPEAKER_00: But what happens whenever a Christmas comes and they don't get the gift that they expect?
SPEAKER_00: Some kids act like this.
SPEAKER_00: Check this out.
SPEAKER_00: Now you can go online and you can see dozens of kids that have these attitudes that curse out their parents because they gave them the wrong gift.
SPEAKER_00: Now, personally, I go, I think they need an attitude adjustment.
SPEAKER_00: I'd be glad to solve that problem for them.
SPEAKER_00: But here's the issue.
SPEAKER_00: Can I just tell you, we of hum as humanity did the same thing.
SPEAKER_00: God presented to us someone whom we didn't expect.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is a different kind of king than what we were expecting.
SPEAKER_00: See, what's sad is that we often create Jesus in our own image.
SPEAKER_00: We want Jesus to be like us rather than who he really is.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, Jesus has been portrayed in a lot of different ways.
SPEAKER_00: Check this guy out.
SPEAKER_00: This is a blonde-haired, blue-eyed Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I call that surfer Jesus dude, right?
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't look anything like the Jewish Jesus who he was.
SPEAKER_00: And so that's the same way, right?
SPEAKER_00: We create Jesus in our own image, and so Jesus is going to present himself as he really is, and it offends especially the religious leaders.
SPEAKER_00: So I want you to see three things, jot it down.
SPEAKER_00: This is who Jesus really is.
SPEAKER_00: First of all, Jesus is the king who liberates hearts.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the king who liberates hearts.
SPEAKER_00: Now, they were all wanting a king, but they wanted a king that would liberate not their sin, not their hearts.
SPEAKER_00: No, they wanted to be liberated from the Roman Empire.
SPEAKER_00: Now, is Jesus a king?
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely, he's the king.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, he gives orders and his disciples obey.
SPEAKER_00: He gives prophecies and they come true, right?
SPEAKER_00: He is king over death.
SPEAKER_00: He's just raised Lazarus from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: He's king over creation.
SPEAKER_00: He speaks, and the wind and the waves obey him.
SPEAKER_00: He is king over the spiritual forces of evil.
SPEAKER_00: Demons squeal in his presence and obey his words.
SPEAKER_00: And here Jesus is riding into Jerusalem, receiving the praises of a king, and he accepts it.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the king.
SPEAKER_00: So check it out.
SPEAKER_00: Look at how again how this is written, verse 7.
SPEAKER_00: They brought the donkey and the cult, then they laid their clothes on them, and he sat on them.
SPEAKER_00: A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road.
SPEAKER_00: Others were cutting branches from the trees and spreading them on the road.
SPEAKER_00: Then the crowd shouted, Hosanna to the son of David, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Now it says that there was a large crowd.
SPEAKER_00: How large?
SPEAKER_00: Well, ancient Jewish historian Josephus, he says that during the Passover season that Jerusalem would swell to as many as two million people.
SPEAKER_00: So you have people all around the world that would travel back to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover.
SPEAKER_00: So you got a bunch of people there, right?
SPEAKER_00: And they're all celebrating Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: But what are they doing?
SPEAKER_00: They're waving palm branches.
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever asked the question, why a palm branch?
SPEAKER_00: Well, a palm branch was a symbol of the nation of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, whenever they minted coins, you know what was on their coin?
SPEAKER_00: It was a palm tree.
SPEAKER_00: And so they didn't have flags.
SPEAKER_00: So what do they have?
SPEAKER_00: They're sort of waving their palm branches.
SPEAKER_00: It's a sign of their um their identity, right?
SPEAKER_00: So you got a bunch of, you know, hundreds, hundreds of thousands of patriotic people waving their palm branches, expecting Jesus to be their king.
SPEAKER_00: But what kind of king were they expecting?
SPEAKER_00: We don't have to guess.
SPEAKER_00: We know, based on Jewish history, 180 years earlier, there was a man called Judas Maccabees.
SPEAKER_00: He and his brother Simon Maccabees.
SPEAKER_00: They led a group of people into Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: They fought the um the Greeks that were controlling Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: They kicked the Greeks and the foreigners out of the temple.
SPEAKER_00: They rededicated the temple to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And so from that day forward, everybody looks at Judas and Simon as heroes of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever wondered why in the New Testament there's so many men called Judas and Simon?
SPEAKER_00: Because these were the heroes of the land.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, think of it like this, okay?
SPEAKER_00: My name is Tony Glenn.
SPEAKER_00: That's my middle name.
SPEAKER_00: There's no Glenn's in my family.
SPEAKER_00: Why am I named Glenn?
SPEAKER_00: Because when I was born, John Glenn, the astronaut, was a hero in America.
SPEAKER_00: So I got John Glenn's as my middle name, okay?
SPEAKER_00: And so that's the idea.
SPEAKER_00: So imagine you have in the Jewish mind, everybody wants their kid to grow up and be a hero like Simon Judas Maccabees, who rode in, whiffed up on the Greeks, and cleansed the temple, right?
SPEAKER_00: And so how did they celebrate Judas Maccabees?
SPEAKER_00: Well, notice what it says in 1 Maccabees.
SPEAKER_00: It says this the Jews entered Jerusalem with praise and palm branches, with harps and cymbals, string and instruments, and with hymns and songs, because a great enemy had been crushed and removed from Israel.
SPEAKER_00: So that's in their mind.
SPEAKER_00: They're expecting Jesus to do the same thing.
SPEAKER_00: They're expecting Jesus to come in, not to whip up on the Greeks, but to whip up on the Romans, right?
SPEAKER_00: Is that why Jesus Christ came?
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: See, Judas Maccabees came riding in on a war horse with a sword, because he was a man of war.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus came riding in on what?
SPEAKER_00: A donkey.
SPEAKER_00: Because he was presenting peace.
SPEAKER_00: You go, okay, well, which one did God predict?
SPEAKER_00: Well, God predicted the one that Jesus did.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, look down at verse 5.
SPEAKER_00: It's a quotation from the prophecy of Zachariah.
SPEAKER_00: It says, This see, your king, that's Jesus, is coming to you.
SPEAKER_00: How?
SPEAKER_00: Gentle and mounted on a donkey.
SPEAKER_00: They wanted a political revolution.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus was bringing a spiritual revolution.
SPEAKER_00: They wanted Jesus to whip up and liberate them from the Romans.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus came to liberate them from their sins.
SPEAKER_00: You see, in that ancient world, whenever you had a conquering king, what he would do is he would ride in to this entourage, and behind him would be chained all the spoils and captives of war.
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus Christ rode in, nobody was chained.
SPEAKER_00: It was all his followers that had been unchained from the sin and baggage they had in their life.
SPEAKER_00: Do you see?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is a different kind of king.
SPEAKER_00: And one, here's this multitude praising Jesus, in a matter of five days, they're going to be crucifying Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus wasn't the king they were expecting.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the king, but he's the king who's come to liberate your heart and your sin.
SPEAKER_00: What's the second thing we learn that Jesus presented himself Palm Sunday?
SPEAKER_00: Jot this down.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus also came to be the savior who cleanses the temple.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus came to be the savior who cleanses the temple.
SPEAKER_00: Now again, remember, we know what's in the Jewish mind.
SPEAKER_00: 180 days, I mean 180 years before, you got Judas Maccabees.
SPEAKER_00: What does he do?
SPEAKER_00: He rides in, he goes to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: What does he do?
SPEAKER_00: He then goes to the temple.
SPEAKER_00: He whips up on the foreigners.
SPEAKER_00: He throws out the foreigners and the Greeks, right?
SPEAKER_00: And he dedicates the temple to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus, guess what?
SPEAKER_00: He's riding on a donkey.
SPEAKER_00: And guess what?
SPEAKER_00: He's going up to the temple.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody's expecting, what's he gonna do?
SPEAKER_00: Who's he going to cast out?
SPEAKER_00: Who's he gonna throw out of the temple?
SPEAKER_00: Well, check it out.
SPEAKER_00: Look who he threw out.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 12.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus went into the temple and threw out all those who were buying and selling.
SPEAKER_00: He overturned the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those selling doves.
SPEAKER_00: We go, what in the world's happening here?
SPEAKER_00: Is Jesus having a bad day?
SPEAKER_00: Does the Messiah need some anger management courses here?
SPEAKER_00: No, this isn't sinful anger.
SPEAKER_00: This is righteous indignation from Almighty God.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus Christ is God's representative on the earth.
SPEAKER_00: The temple belongs to him, and they are desecrating God's house.
SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus has had enough of it.
SPEAKER_00: Now you may go, what exactly is happening there?
SPEAKER_00: The buying and selling all these people that Jesus was casting out.
SPEAKER_00: Well, let me see if I can explain it like this.
SPEAKER_00: Let me show you a picture, a model of the temple courts, okay?
SPEAKER_00: So what we have here, we we obviously have the temple itself.
SPEAKER_00: That's where the sacrifices and everything took place, right?
SPEAKER_00: That's the primary altar in worship of God.
SPEAKER_00: But then over on either side of the temple, you have what's known as the court of the Gentiles.
SPEAKER_00: You go, what is that all about?
SPEAKER_00: Well, you see, the temple wasn't ever designed just for the Jewish people.
SPEAKER_00: God has always had a heart for the nations.
SPEAKER_00: And so whenever the temple is to be built, there's a place for people, foreigners, who want to come and worship Yahweh God.
SPEAKER_00: Well, here's what happened.
SPEAKER_00: The religious leader said, We got this giant court out here.
SPEAKER_00: Why don't we use that court to sell animals to people that are going to sacrifice in the temple?
SPEAKER_00: You go, like, like what kind of animals?
SPEAKER_00: Well, um, there would be Passover, so you need lambs, right?
SPEAKER_00: You need doves to sacrifice in the temple.
SPEAKER_00: That would happen.
SPEAKER_00: You you would never come to worship God if you didn't bring a sacrifice.
SPEAKER_00: But here's what happened: the religious leaders they set up a racket to um to fill their pockets with money.
SPEAKER_00: This is what they did.
SPEAKER_00: People would come and they'd have an animal like a lamb, and the religious leaders would go, Oh, I'm so sorry.
SPEAKER_00: Your lamb has a defect, but we got a pre-approved one right here.
SPEAKER_00: And all you gotta do is you gotta exchange money because we don't take Roman money.
SPEAKER_00: You gotta we only take temple money, so go over there and get an exchange, which there's an exorbitant exchange rate, and then you come back over here and then you buy a lamb.
SPEAKER_00: And so basically, a lamb that may cost you$50 outside the temple, well, it's a hundred dollars in the temple, right?
SPEAKER_00: You go, what in the world?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean it's sort of like when you go to the movie theater, right?
SPEAKER_00: The tickets only cost ten dollars.
SPEAKER_00: But then you want to buy a large, you know, coke and a large popcorn, and it's$250, right?
SPEAKER_00: And so you go, what in the world?
SPEAKER_00: How can they charge these kind of exorbitant rates?
SPEAKER_00: Because they got you and they know they got you, right?
SPEAKER_00: And so here the religious establishment was ripping the people off, right?
SPEAKER_00: So they're they're preventing Gentiles from worshiping the true Yahweh God, and then they're making a mockery of all this kind of stuff and you know, haggling over things.
SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine?
SPEAKER_00: Imagine if you're a sincere foreigner who wants to worship Yahweh God and you got all this noise going on.
SPEAKER_00: And so, what does Jesus do?
SPEAKER_00: He's holy, and he's had enough of this, right?
SPEAKER_00: And so, what is he doing?
SPEAKER_00: He's driving the animals out, and and sheep are going bah, right?
SPEAKER_00: And then when he's opened up cages and doves are flying away, right?
SPEAKER_00: And he's got the money changers, and he's throwing over the temple money changers, and money's going all over the place, you know, that kind of stuff.
SPEAKER_00: There's a there's an old hymn called Gentle Jesus, meek and mild.
SPEAKER_00: That's not Jesus here.
SPEAKER_00: This is holy Jesus, righteous and wild, man.
SPEAKER_00: He has had it, right?
SPEAKER_00: If you are preventing serious worshipers from following God, if you're keeping them and you're stabbing people and you're feathering your pockets with money, Jesus is gonna come after you.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what he does.
SPEAKER_00: He comes after the religious leaders.
SPEAKER_00: Why is Jesus so upset?
SPEAKER_00: He tells us, look at it.
SPEAKER_00: Mark 11 puts it like this He said to them, It is written, My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations, but you are making it a den of thieves.
SPEAKER_00: Notice what Jesus does.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus calls the temple my house.
SPEAKER_00: He's equating himself with God.
SPEAKER_00: This is my house, right?
SPEAKER_00: And this is a supposed to be a place for all nations.
SPEAKER_00: And what have you done?
SPEAKER_00: You've made a mockery of the temple for the courtyard for the Gentiles.
SPEAKER_00: And so here comes Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He's not the kind of king they're expecting.
SPEAKER_00: They're expecting him to throw out all the foreigners.
SPEAKER_00: And what does Jesus do?
SPEAKER_00: He throws out the religious establishment to make room for the foreigners.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: And guess what?
SPEAKER_00: The religious establishment is living.
SPEAKER_00: People that were waving palm branches are going, uh oh, this ain't the kind of king we thought Jesus was going to be.
SPEAKER_00: And so notice what the religious leaders do.
SPEAKER_00: Look at it in Mark 11.
SPEAKER_00: It says, When the chief priests and scribes heard it, they started looking for a way to kill him.
SPEAKER_00: They are offended by Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because he is overturning his religion, their religion.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to me, God doesn't want your religion, God wants a relationship with you.
SPEAKER_00: And so here is Jesus, the King, who comes to set and liberate you from your sin.
SPEAKER_00: He is the Savior who comes to cleanse the temple of your soul.
SPEAKER_00: But then there's a third thing Jesus declares on Palm Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: Jot this down.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the healer who welcomes everyone.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus has removed the religious riff raft out of the temple.
SPEAKER_00: And what does he do?
SPEAKER_00: He then sits down in the temple and he starts using the temple for its real purpose, right?
SPEAKER_00: The temple represented God on earth.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is God's Son on earth.
SPEAKER_00: He's bringing the kingdom of God down to earth.
SPEAKER_00: What does that look like?
SPEAKER_00: Look at it in verse 14.
SPEAKER_00: The blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them.
SPEAKER_00: When the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonders that he did, and the children shouting in the temple, Hosanna to the son of David, they were indignant.
SPEAKER_00: Now, think about it.
SPEAKER_00: Why would healing somebody in the temple make you so mad?
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, think about it.
SPEAKER_00: If if there was someone who is blind here today and the Lord Jesus gave them sight, we go, woo-hoo, right?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, if somebody's lame and can't walk and suddenly they're healed and they're jumping and dancing and praising the Lord, we'd celebrate, right?
SPEAKER_00: Why aren't they celebrating?
SPEAKER_00: I'll tell you why.
SPEAKER_00: Because the religious establishment had taken one verse from the Old Testament out of context and used it to exclude people with um disabilities.
SPEAKER_00: The verse is um from 2 Samuel.
SPEAKER_00: The blind and the lame cannot enter the house of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: They took that out of context, use it as a pretext, and basically they excluded blind and lame people and people with deformities to come into the temple.
SPEAKER_00: And what does Jesus do?
SPEAKER_00: He sits down and says, Hey, all you guys that have not been allowed in, come on in.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna show you what God's all about.
SPEAKER_00: Right now, did this fulfill scripture?
SPEAKER_00: We know that Jesus riding on the donkey fulfilled scripture.
SPEAKER_00: Did this look what it says in Isaiah 35.
SPEAKER_00: I love this verse.
SPEAKER_00: The lame will leap like a deer, and those who cannot speak will sing for joy.
SPEAKER_00: Man, I love that.
SPEAKER_00: That is predicting what the Messiah would do.
SPEAKER_00: That's exactly what Jesus Christ did.
SPEAKER_00: You see, they wanted Jesus to be a Warrior and he came to be a savior.
SPEAKER_00: They wanted liberation from Rome.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus gave them liberation from sin.
SPEAKER_00: They wanted their religion, and Jesus says, No, that won't do.
SPEAKER_00: I want a relationship with you.
SPEAKER_00: They wanted to exclude people, and Jesus said, No, I want to bring people in.
SPEAKER_00: And so the self-righteous religious people, they were offended by what Jesus did, and they want Jesus dead.
SPEAKER_00: Now there's one group in the temple that was not jaded by religion.
SPEAKER_00: Who was it?
SPEAKER_00: It was children.
SPEAKER_00: Check it out.
SPEAKER_00: Look how they responded to what Jesus was doing.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 15.
SPEAKER_00: And the children shouted in the temple, Hosanna to the son of David, right?
SPEAKER_00: Don't you love that?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, basically they're seeing Jesus heal these people, and they're just filled with praise toward Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: That's what I love about children.
SPEAKER_00: Children just have an innocent faith.
SPEAKER_00: Most of us, life has made us skeptical and jaded in life, right?
SPEAKER_00: But not children.
SPEAKER_00: If you go to our children's worship right now, you know what you're discover?
SPEAKER_00: They're going to be singing and shouting and dancing and no inhibition in our children's worship.
SPEAKER_00: Whenever the leader says, hey, it's time to pray, they all get up, they all come to the altar, they're going to pray.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because if God says he's going to listen to my prayers, I'm going to pray.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to believe it.
SPEAKER_00: They just have the sincere faith.
SPEAKER_00: I want to show you a picture.
SPEAKER_00: This is my granddaughter last Christmas.
SPEAKER_00: They were from out of town and they were here for the Christmas Eve service.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't she sweet?
SPEAKER_00: And so that's Tegan.
SPEAKER_00: But her mom took that picture because whenever I was teaching, she was trying to take notes.
SPEAKER_00: And whenever I prayed, she prayed.
SPEAKER_00: She just believes God.
SPEAKER_00: No wonder Jesus said, if you're going to enter the kingdom of God, you've got to come like a little child.
SPEAKER_00: You've got to have that simple childlike faith and trust me.
SPEAKER_00: And so the children, they're praising Jesus with no inhibitions.
SPEAKER_00: But how did the religious leaders handle that?
SPEAKER_00: Look at it, verse 16.
SPEAKER_00: And they said to him, Do you hear what these children are saying?
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus said to them, Yes.
SPEAKER_00: And have you never read the scriptures?
SPEAKER_00: I love that, because Jesus is saying to religious leaders, don't you read your Bible, right?
SPEAKER_00: Out of the mouth of children and infants you have perfected praise.
SPEAKER_00: These children are doing what you should be doing.
SPEAKER_00: They are praising me because I am worthy of praise.
SPEAKER_00: Why is he worthy of praise?
SPEAKER_00: Because he is the king who's come to liberate you from sin.
SPEAKER_00: He is the savior who's come to cleanse the temple of your soul.
SPEAKER_00: He is the healer who's come to welcome everyone.
SPEAKER_00: And folks, he alone is worthy of your praise.
SPEAKER_00: So these children, they are praising Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And so Palm Sunday starts with praise, but then it ends with a plot, a plot to have Jesus Christ dead.
SPEAKER_00: And so for every day the religious leaders gather together.
SPEAKER_00: How can we arrest Jesus and how can we kill him?
SPEAKER_00: Why do they do that?
SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus didn't conform to them.
SPEAKER_00: And let me just remind you, Jesus is not going to conform to you.
SPEAKER_00: He's the king, you conform to him.
SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus taught like nobody had ever taught.
SPEAKER_00: He worked miracles like no one had ever seen before.
SPEAKER_00: He loved with a heart that no one had ever been loved like that before.
SPEAKER_00: And guess what happened?
SPEAKER_00: His great teaching led to his rest, where his great love led him to the cross, where his great heart stopped beating.
SPEAKER_00: And in that moment, when he died on the cross, the Bible says that all of my sin and your sin, the punishment that we all deserve for our sin, was placed on Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: He took our death.
SPEAKER_00: And then they took down Jesus' lifeless body and they shoved it into a tomb and they sealed it up tight with a stone.
SPEAKER_00: And it seemed like the end of such a marvelous life.
SPEAKER_00: But let me remind you, that was not the end, folks.
SPEAKER_00: Let me show you another picture.
SPEAKER_00: This is me in Jerusalem, outside the tomb of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And I've looked in there and it's empty.
SPEAKER_00: It's just like what the angel said.
SPEAKER_00: Why are you looking for the living among the dead?
SPEAKER_00: He is not here, he's alive.
SPEAKER_00: You see, on Easter, the stone got rolled away, death lost its sting, the grave lost its victory.
SPEAKER_00: On Easter, hell was defeated, faith was vindicated.
SPEAKER_00: On Easter, sin lost, shame died, hope stored, love won, because Jesus Christ is alive.
SPEAKER_00: And because he's alive, he's king.
SPEAKER_00: So if he is the king who's come to liberate you from sin, you must repent and believe in him.
SPEAKER_00: If he's the savior who has come to cleanse the temple of your soul, then he alone is the one you should worship.
SPEAKER_00: If he is the healer who welcomes everyone in, then you need to come to him.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus Christ came to bring the kingdom of God to earth.
SPEAKER_00: But you've got to receive him as your king.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_00: Father, thank you so much for your word.
SPEAKER_00: I thank you for the significance of Palm Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: Forgive us, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Forgive us for creating you in our own image.
SPEAKER_00: Forgive us for worshiping religion rather than you.
SPEAKER_00: Forgive us for clinging to our sin rather than repenting of them.
SPEAKER_00: Lord God, help us today to respond to you as those who really accept you as our King and Lord.
SPEAKER_00: We pray this in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.