SPEAKER_00: Good morning.
SPEAKER_00: How's everybody?
SPEAKER_00: Good?
SPEAKER_00: Beautiful day.
SPEAKER_00: Spring has sprung.
SPEAKER_00: Little cool edge still, I guess, but spring seems to have sprung.
SPEAKER_00: Officially, it's here.
SPEAKER_00: One thing we don't have, and uh no one has brought it up to you, I bet, Angela, is the uh the famed Palm Sunday dress that Angela used to wear for the first.
SPEAKER_00: It has been brought up.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know why this was such a big deal.
SPEAKER_00: Palm leaves all over a dress, and she wore it here to church on Palm Sunday for, I don't know, years 30 years.
SPEAKER_00: That's kind of a threadbare dress, I would think, by now.
SPEAKER_00: Uh yeah, so Palm Sunday without Angela's palm dress.
SPEAKER_00: A uh well-known preacher recently said this Jesus is the king that you need.
SPEAKER_00: Who said that?
SPEAKER_00: Uh the application is having a hard time sinking in.
SPEAKER_00: That was Daniel Kabanchin one week ago.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the king that you need.
SPEAKER_00: I told Daniel that I take a lot of uh notes on the sermons because our small group that meets at our house discusses the sermon as the basis for our Bible study.
SPEAKER_00: Some other groups in the church do other things, but uh pardon we uh we talk about the sermon.
SPEAKER_00: You can see why I have multiple cups of water up here today.
SPEAKER_00: The throat's acting weird.
SPEAKER_00: You'd never know that I was once a broadcaster, you know.
SPEAKER_00: This is just uh the throat does funny things.
SPEAKER_00: Um anyway, so we take a lot, I take a lot of notes, and that's if you see me over there scribbling furiously, it's so that I can lead our Bible study time.
SPEAKER_00: Uh it's here that I insert a little commercial uh for small groups.
SPEAKER_00: If you're not in one and you'd like to be in one, they're a great thing.
SPEAKER_00: You get to know people better, get to know the scripture better.
SPEAKER_00: It's very relational and fun, and if it's anything like the group at our house, the snacks are great.
SPEAKER_00: I think we have the leading group in that respect.
SPEAKER_00: Um, if I may say so.
SPEAKER_00: If you're not in a group, just ask one of the elders about that, and we can fit you into one or we can start a new one.
SPEAKER_00: Um ask particularly Andrew Detweiler about that.
SPEAKER_00: He's kind of over that area.
SPEAKER_00: Andrew is not here today, am I right?
SPEAKER_00: I think he's not.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, he's traveling.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: All right.
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, I told Daniel my note-taking was great last week because he had so many great things to say, did he not?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: He surely did.
SPEAKER_00: You can hear that message on our Facebook page or on the church website if you like and you didn't get to hear it, or if you'd like to hear it again because it's worth it, it'll be good for your soul.
SPEAKER_00: All right.
SPEAKER_00: And Daniel said, you may be feeling like King Saul.
SPEAKER_00: After all, we've been going through 1 Samuel, taking a little break for these uh next this sermon and Fridays and Sundays.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, taking a break from 1 Samuel.
SPEAKER_00: Uh but he said, you might feel like King Saul kind of crushed and worn down.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe your failures are are bringing you down.
SPEAKER_00: And then he said, Look to King Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Look to King Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He is the gentle Savior we all need.
SPEAKER_00: He is the one we need.
SPEAKER_00: What did we sing last week?
SPEAKER_00: I know you don't remember that, but I will read some of the words to one of the songs.
SPEAKER_00: I love this.
SPEAKER_00: When Satan tempts me to despair and tells me of the guilt within, upward I look and see him there, who made an end to all my sin.
SPEAKER_00: Because the sinless Savior died, my sinful soul is counted free.
SPEAKER_00: For God the just is satisfied to look on him and pardon me.
SPEAKER_00: Today I want to look at what Jesus did to be that Savior and King that we all need.
SPEAKER_00: So this is essentially the first of a three-part mini series of sermons today's, as we start Holy Week, arguably the most significant single week in human history.
SPEAKER_00: I think I can say that.
SPEAKER_00: Um Jesus accomplished our salvation for us.
SPEAKER_00: Today, Palm Sunday, number one in this little series, the start of that last climactic week.
SPEAKER_00: And then at the end of this week, Daniel will take parts two and three of the sermon series, a message for Good Friday, this Friday evening at six o'clock.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: Don't forget.
SPEAKER_00: Friday at six, if you can make it.
SPEAKER_00: And then he will talk about uh the resurrection on next Sunday, Easter.
SPEAKER_00: So, Palm Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: Would you look into your scripture, whether it's electronic in form or that old-fashioned kind that has paper in it, uh, to John chapter 12, and we'll start reading at verse 12.
SPEAKER_00: I'll read it in a second.
SPEAKER_00: But first of all, um we know from Luke chapter 9.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, the the Gospels are different biographies of Jesus told from different angles, so you get some different perspectives.
SPEAKER_00: In Luke 9, it says Jesus set his face to go to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: He was on a mission, he knew what the mission was, and that expression is kind of neat.
SPEAKER_00: He set his face to go to Jerusalem, to accomplish his mission.
SPEAKER_00: Why he came to earth.
SPEAKER_00: Earlier in Luke 9, Jesus tried to prepare the disciples for that.
SPEAKER_00: He told them it wasn't just clues, he told them flat out things, his favorite title for himself, the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed, and on the third day be raised.
SPEAKER_00: Later in Luke 9, I am coming to John 12.
SPEAKER_00: Later in Luke 9, he says it again.
SPEAKER_00: He says this at the beginning of his comment.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Let these words sink into your ears.
SPEAKER_00: The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men.
SPEAKER_00: Did this sink into their ears?
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: The text says no.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, it reads, They did not understand the saying, and it was concealed from them so that they might not perceive it, and they were afraid to ask him about it.
SPEAKER_00: God's misprovidence is mysterious sometimes, right?
SPEAKER_00: How he goes about things.
SPEAKER_00: So in his great providence, they didn't get it yet.
SPEAKER_00: They had conceived of a Messiah who was a conquering hero, a military conqueror who would throw off Rome.
SPEAKER_00: Little did they know that the actual plan, God's plan, was that the Messiah had to suffer and die to win our salvation.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, they should have known that, but because Jesus was pretty plain about it, but they didn't know.
SPEAKER_00: And then we see this plan start to unfold.
SPEAKER_00: The different Gospels tell it a little differently.
SPEAKER_00: So we'll look at John 12 and see where this takes us.
SPEAKER_00: All this drama and agony of Holy Week is about to begin.
SPEAKER_00: This is where the sinless Savior we sing of makes an end to all of our sin.
SPEAKER_00: One of the few incidents in the life of Jesus, by the way, that's recorded in all four Gospels.
SPEAKER_00: So we take a look at John chapter 12, and starting at verse 12, I'm just gonna have you stay seated.
SPEAKER_00: No dishonor of the word of God, but I just want you to relax and listen.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna move a guitar pick so I don't stand on it and go flying.
SPEAKER_00: John 12, verse 12.
SPEAKER_00: The next day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: So they took branches of palm trees 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.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written, Fear not, daughter of Zion, behold, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey's colt.
SPEAKER_00: His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered these things had been written about him and had been done to him.
SPEAKER_00: The crowd that had been with him, when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead, continued to bear witness.
SPEAKER_00: The reason why the crowd went to meet him was that they had heard he had done this sign.
SPEAKER_00: So the Pharisees said to one another, You see that you are gaining nothing.
SPEAKER_00: Look, the world has gone after him.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray for just a moment.
SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, by your Holy Spirit, we ask you to enlighten our hearts, open our eyes to see the truths of your word and all its majesty, and to enjoy it and apply it to our hearts in Jesus' name.
unknown: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: So, my first point as I break down the scene is the plan unfolds.
SPEAKER_00: Not to be outdone by Daniel or anyone in terms of alliteration, as we create an outline for the passage, my points will all start with P, except the first one will have the in front of it, so please excuse that.
SPEAKER_00: But the first one is the plan unfolds.
SPEAKER_00: What is the scene?
SPEAKER_00: Passover.
SPEAKER_00: Why is that significant?
SPEAKER_00: What is Passover?
SPEAKER_00: You remember, right?
SPEAKER_00: The great and amazing story from the Old Testament of God's freeing the Israelites from slavery in Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: They'd been there for hundreds of years in bondage, enslaved by the king, the Pharaoh of Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: But God heard their cries.
SPEAKER_00: He sent plagues, he sent nine plagues, distressing all the people in the country of Egypt, but Pharaoh's heart was hardened.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't let them go.
SPEAKER_00: He then sent a tenth plague, a horrible plague, the death of the firstborn of all the people of Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: They were to die.
SPEAKER_00: But God revealed a special way to protect the Israelite newborns.
SPEAKER_00: They were to sacrifice a lamb and paint its blood over the doorposts of their house.
SPEAKER_00: And they'd be protected because when God came around that night, he would see the blood on the doorposts and pass over those homes that had the blood, Passover.
SPEAKER_00: And that's why we call it that.
SPEAKER_00: And this final plague, the killing of the firstborns, finally broke Pharaoh.
SPEAKER_00: And he relented and let the people go.
SPEAKER_00: It's a much more involved story than that, but that's the essence of the Passover.
SPEAKER_00: And the Jews were to celebrate the Passover year after year with the feast of Passover.
SPEAKER_00: And that, where it refers to the feast here in verse 12, is about to happen at the start of Jesus' final week.
SPEAKER_00: God's plan is unfolding.
SPEAKER_00: What happened right before this in the earlier parts of verse chapter 12?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus raised his friend Lazarus from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: Wow, a huge event.
SPEAKER_00: People were wowed and amazed and were spreading the word about it and were following Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: That's what was happening right before this.
SPEAKER_00: And the Jewish leaders, the chief priests and the scribes, seeing this as a threat, they conspired to kill Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And you can read about it at the very end of the chapter before, 11, at verse 55.
SPEAKER_00: Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand.
SPEAKER_00: And then verse 57, the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that if anyone knew where Jesus was, he was to let them know so that they might arrest him.
SPEAKER_00: So there's an arrest warrant.
SPEAKER_00: An implicit death order has happened here.
SPEAKER_00: This is the high drama background of this passage.
SPEAKER_00: Now, immediately before this passage, in verse, or rather chapter 12, I keep doing that, there is a dinner that's held for Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Who's there?
SPEAKER_00: His good friends Martha and Mary and their brother, the recently raised from the dead Lazarus, at this dinner party.
SPEAKER_00: And at this party, Mary anoints Jesus with expensive perfume.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said this was done to prepare him for burial.
SPEAKER_00: So the drama and the tension are hitting a peak as we come to the triumphant entry into Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 12, the start of our passage today, says the crowd was large.
SPEAKER_00: How large?
SPEAKER_00: The ancient Jewish historian Josephus spoke of this once, and he said of a different Passover, that in the city, the little city of Jerusalem, it's not big, were 2.7 million pilgrims.
SPEAKER_00: That's a big crowd.
SPEAKER_00: And of course, they had to sacrifice a lot of lambs.
SPEAKER_00: How many lambs?
SPEAKER_00: Many ancient records say sometimes at Passover during that week there were 250,000 lambs to be sacrificed.
SPEAKER_00: A quarter million lambs.
SPEAKER_00: Amazing.
SPEAKER_00: If you can imagine this, the the scene, the sweat and the noise, and the stink and the blood.
SPEAKER_00: Quite a scene, and that is our scene for Passover week.
SPEAKER_00: God's plan is unfolding.
SPEAKER_00: Another part of the background is this the nationalistic fervor is building in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: Nationalistic fervor, a mood, a sense that something revolutionary is in the air, that something may be happening.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe now is the time for the Roman occupiers to be thrown off.
SPEAKER_00: There is this keen sense.
SPEAKER_00: And you have an acclaimed king-like figure who just raised a man from the dead, or so the reports say, and who's done other miracles, and he's about to enter the city.
SPEAKER_00: So you can see that things could get explosive really quick.
SPEAKER_00: And it's part of God's plan.
SPEAKER_00: A plan in this scene that gets a little misread.
SPEAKER_00: It's a little misjudged, as we will see unfold.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus knew what he was doing.
SPEAKER_00: It's a plan, after all.
SPEAKER_00: He was not falling victim to the events that were happening, he was controlling the events that were happening.
SPEAKER_00: He was Lord of the events.
SPEAKER_00: I hope you understand that and believe that.
SPEAKER_00: It's very important.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, Jesus earlier, or in another place, yes, just a little bit earlier in John said, I lay down my life of my own accord.
SPEAKER_00: So this is a plan, the sovereign God in human form, and the plan is unfolding.
SPEAKER_00: When some other amazing events happened in John, right before this, Jesus handled them differently in this sense.
SPEAKER_00: He fed the 5,000.
SPEAKER_00: Much acclaim.
SPEAKER_00: How did that happen?
SPEAKER_00: And instead of letting the crowd grab him and make him king, he withdrew.
SPEAKER_00: He withdrew to a mountain to pray.
SPEAKER_00: That's John chapter 6.
SPEAKER_00: In John chapter 7, the crowd is wondering: is this the Christ?
SPEAKER_00: Is this the Messiah?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus has just said out loud that he came from God.
SPEAKER_00: Is this the Christ?
SPEAKER_00: There was a big hubbub.
SPEAKER_00: And they sought to arrest him, some of their leaders did, but no one laid a hand on him.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because the text says, his hour had not come yet.
SPEAKER_00: So some of these things have been happening, things that stirred the people up and got the Pharisees mad and led to his great fame, but in those prior cases he withdrew.
SPEAKER_00: It was not his hour yet.
SPEAKER_00: He knew his hour had not come.
SPEAKER_00: It is not really 9 45, is it?
SPEAKER_00: No, okay.
SPEAKER_00: But here we are in John chapter 12, and his hour has come.
SPEAKER_00: If you drop your eyes down to verse 23 of this chapter, just beyond our passage for today, it says, Jesus answered them, the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.
SPEAKER_00: Referring to what?
SPEAKER_00: To his pending death.
SPEAKER_00: He calls that his glorification.
SPEAKER_00: Interesting, right?
SPEAKER_00: The hour has come for that, to accomplish his mission.
SPEAKER_00: And since he knows the hour has come and he is controlling events, he puts things into motion.
SPEAKER_00: He mounts a donkey to ride into the city.
SPEAKER_00: That was point one.
SPEAKER_00: Point two, prophecy fulfilled.
SPEAKER_00: The plan unfolds now, prophecy fulfilled.
SPEAKER_00: If you look at verse 12 again, the crowd heard Jesus was going to be in Jerusalem for the Passover feast.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 13, they see him riding into the city.
SPEAKER_00: So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, and they yelled, Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the king of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: And then we read of the prophecy that Jesus is fulfilling.
SPEAKER_00: So he's riding, he's riding a donkey, as it is written, verse 15 of our passage, Fear not, daughter of Zion, which was a common designation for the people of Jerusalem, daughter of Zion.
SPEAKER_00: Fear not, daughter of Zion.
SPEAKER_00: Behold, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey's colt.
SPEAKER_00: He's quoting the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: This is Jesus fulfilling Zechariah chapter 9, verse 9, which says, Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion.
SPEAKER_00: Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: Behold, your king is coming.
SPEAKER_00: Righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey.
SPEAKER_00: Now, in our passage, as it's quoted, the fear not at the beginning is thought to probably be from Isaiah, and then the rest about riding a donkey from Zechariah.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes the New Testament authors blended some of the Old Testament passages they quoted.
SPEAKER_00: Zechariah made his prophecy about the donkey about 500 years before Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus here fulfills it.
SPEAKER_00: And it's just like a number of other incredible prophecy fulfillments, dozens of them fulfilled by Jesus, so that we might know who he really is.
SPEAKER_00: For example, Micah 5.2, the prediction about where the Messiah would come from, a little town called Bethlehem.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I don't know how you arrange your own birthplace, but Jesus did.
SPEAKER_00: The second person to the Trinity was born in fulfillment of that prophecy.
SPEAKER_00: And many other prophecies were fulfilled in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Sort of his giving us reasons to know who he really was, his credentials, you might say.
SPEAKER_00: Now, why palm branches?
SPEAKER_00: He's riding in on a donkey.
SPEAKER_00: Why palm branches?
SPEAKER_00: They could have been from date palms.
SPEAKER_00: We had the great privilege just a few years ago to be in Israel.
SPEAKER_00: Date trees are everywhere.
SPEAKER_00: We passed fields and fields of date trees that look like palm trees.
SPEAKER_00: They are called date palms.
SPEAKER_00: Possibly these were the kinds of palm branches.
SPEAKER_00: Now, palm branches were more associated with a different feast for the Jews, the Feast of Tabernacles.
SPEAKER_00: So you might ask why here in this feast of Passover?
SPEAKER_00: Well, it has a lot to do with something that happened 200 years before this.
SPEAKER_00: Now I know you were all scholars of the 400-year intertestamental period, the things that happened between the Old Testament and the New.
SPEAKER_00: Before the Romans ruled, remember the Romans were the occupiers, they were the great superpower controlling the world, this part of the world.
SPEAKER_00: Before that were whom controlling and occupying the Greeks.
SPEAKER_00: Starting in about 300 BC, roughly, Alexander the Great becomes the great leader of the known world.
SPEAKER_00: He takes over all over the place.
SPEAKER_00: He spreads the Greek language all over the place, which in God's providence is super cool because the New Testament comes along and it's written in Greek, and the disciples go out and preach it that way, and they have an avenue for it to go to the whole world because thanks to our friend Alexander the Great, he has spread the language all over the place.
SPEAKER_00: Just another amazing there, there's so many amazing things we could talk about for why we know the Bible is true.
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, the Greeks, Alexander the Great, 300 B.C., he passes from the scene, and some of his generals take over other parts of the area.
SPEAKER_00: And the area that is taken over, that has Jerusalem in it, is by the group called the Seleucids.
SPEAKER_00: The Seleucids are Greeks, just a faction of them.
SPEAKER_00: So the Seleucids are in charge at about 200 B.C.
SPEAKER_00: And they oppressed the Jews terribly.
SPEAKER_00: They desecrated the temple, all kinds of terrible things.
SPEAKER_00: And then in about 160 BC, see, now and then there were revolts by the Jews against the Seleucid Greek masters.
SPEAKER_00: And in 160 BC, there was a famous revolt.
SPEAKER_00: Some Jewish rebels, known as the Maccabees, rose up against their oppressors.
SPEAKER_00: They cleansed the temples.
SPEAKER_00: They threw the Seleucids out.
SPEAKER_00: They were at least temporarily victorious in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: And their leader, Simon Maccabeas, was hailed as a hero.
SPEAKER_00: He was welcomed into town with the waving of palm branches.
SPEAKER_00: So palm branches from that point on became a symbol of nationalistic pride in Israel.
SPEAKER_00: Later on, coins were minted that had palm branches.
SPEAKER_00: On them.
SPEAKER_00: And it seems this palm branch thing will stick around as a way of celebrating great victories because we read in Revelation 7 a great scene before the throne.
SPEAKER_00: There is the Lamb, and the people are worshiping before the Lamb, and they're dressed in white robes, and they're waving palm branches.
SPEAKER_00: So that's pretty cool.
SPEAKER_00: There's a future for the palm branches as well.
SPEAKER_00: So, in our Palm Sunday scene, they're waving the palms, they are shouting, Hosanna, which means, we sang it this morning, it means, Save us, or save us now.
SPEAKER_00: And it comes from a messianic psalm in the Old Testament from way back in David's time, Psalm 118, and verse 25, which says, Save us, we pray, O Lord, save us.
SPEAKER_00: And the very next verse in that psalm is who comes in the name of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Things come from the Old Testament, and they are notes of messianic expectation, way back then, right?
SPEAKER_00: Even the ancient rabbis, we often wonder what did the ancient Jewish leaders make of Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: They were expecting a Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: We know when he came, they were even aware to some extent that Bethlehem was specified in the Old Testament as the birthplace of the Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: They had some sense of this.
SPEAKER_00: But even the ancient rabbis, in their commentaries on the scripture, recognized that Psalm 118-25, Save us, O Lord, is a messianic psalm.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm of the Messiah coming.
SPEAKER_00: Some of the ancient writings called Midrashim.
SPEAKER_00: Midrashim is plural for midrash.
SPEAKER_00: A midrash is an interpretation, a teaching, a commentary.
SPEAKER_00: The midrash on Psalm 118-25 says, this is about the Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: So the ancient rabbis were aware of that.
SPEAKER_00: Make of that what we will, right?
SPEAKER_00: So between the Hosanna's and the palm branches, which are a symbol of nationalistic pride, the people were stirred up.
SPEAKER_00: And to one extent or another, they believed that they saw their Messiah riding into town.
SPEAKER_00: But there are certain clues in the text that tell us that they were misjudging things.
SPEAKER_00: So point three in the message, power misunderstood.
SPEAKER_00: The atmosphere is festive, there's electricity in the air, nationalistic fervor, and some of the excitement was no doubt because the crowds were misunderstanding what was going on to some extent, anyway.
SPEAKER_00: You could say their expectations were amiss.
SPEAKER_00: What did they expect?
SPEAKER_00: They envisioned a Messiah who was a conquering king, who was going to come exercise great power and throw off the occupiers from Rome.
SPEAKER_00: First clue that they have this wrong.
SPEAKER_00: What is Jesus riding?
SPEAKER_00: A donkey.
SPEAKER_00: If they were thinking about it, they might have seen that the donkey was an odd choice for a conquering king.
SPEAKER_00: Now the donkey did have royal symbolism attached to it.
SPEAKER_00: David at one point rode in on a donkey.
SPEAKER_00: Solomon, his son, also was once on a donkey for a big ceremony.
SPEAKER_00: So, appropriately enough, we do have royalty here with Jesus coming in on a donkey.
SPEAKER_00: That sort of fits.
SPEAKER_00: But what would have really whipped this crowd up into a frenzy and would have had them thinking, insurrection, get rid of the Romans, would have been if Jesus entered the city on a war horse.
SPEAKER_00: That would have signaled that things were about to get explosive.
SPEAKER_00: That Jesus was going to provoke a military confrontation.
SPEAKER_00: He could have sparked an armed revolt at this point.
SPEAKER_00: Hearkening back to Simon Maccabeas, only a greater revolt, no doubt.
SPEAKER_00: And no doubt, many in the crowd were longing for just that very thing.
SPEAKER_00: They wanted to see power on display.
SPEAKER_00: But the power on display here was misunderstood.
SPEAKER_00: The wrong kind of power was desired by many.
SPEAKER_00: War horses were often ridden by worldly Gentile kings, arriving to conquer a place.
SPEAKER_00: One commentator has that use of the war horse in mind when he writes this.
SPEAKER_00: He says, the donkey stands out as a deliberate rejection of this symbol of arrogant trust in human might, meaning the war horse.
SPEAKER_00: A man riding into town on a war horse would be a huge provocation against the authorities.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus riding in on a donkey was a provocation, but of a different kind.
SPEAKER_00: He enters Jerusalem as king, to be sure, but a king who comes in peace.
SPEAKER_00: As the prophecy in Zechariah said, he was humble, or as the NIV has it, lowly and riding on a donkey.
SPEAKER_00: He was the king, as the people cried out.
SPEAKER_00: They were right about that, but not the kind of king that they were looking for.
SPEAKER_00: King on a horse was there to make war.
SPEAKER_00: This king on a donkey was there to make peace.
SPEAKER_00: And as the scene unfolds, and the people sort of begin to get it that he is not there for war.
SPEAKER_00: The real provocation is that he is, by doing this, renouncing the would-be revolters, the ones who want the overthrow.
SPEAKER_00: He's challenging the zealots.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, one of the apostles is Simon the Zealot.
SPEAKER_00: The zealots are a party that wants to overthrow Rome by force.
SPEAKER_00: He's challenging that.
SPEAKER_00: He has a different way in mind.
SPEAKER_00: The commentator named Rick Phillips, we actually, many of us saw him speak not long ago in the prophecy, the theology conference over at the Quakertown BFC Church.
SPEAKER_00: Rick Phillips, he's a Presbyterian minister, and he's written a great commentary on John.
SPEAKER_00: And he explains that this rejection of what many people wanted explains how the crowd was that so excitedly welcomes Jesus to the city here could call for his crucifixion a few days later.
SPEAKER_00: Because he wasn't fulfilling the expectations that they had.
SPEAKER_00: Rick Phillips says, Jesus had rejected their offer of a war-bound king on Palm Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: They rejected his kingdom of peace on Good Friday.
SPEAKER_00: Pretty well said.
SPEAKER_00: Let's think about how some of this might apply to us before we finish looking at the passage.
SPEAKER_00: This issue of power desired and power misunderstood.
SPEAKER_00: We can want a certain kind of messiah and not necessarily be right about that.
SPEAKER_00: We might want a war-waging messiah, a militant messiah.
SPEAKER_00: Rick Phillips says it's easy for Christians today in America, a little different than other places, but for Christians in America to get caught up in all the culture war stuff.
SPEAKER_00: Note the word war in that expression.
SPEAKER_00: The idea that there's a great contest in the public square, in America anyway, a fight between Bible-backed ideas and the policies of a pagan world.
SPEAKER_00: We need to be careful.
SPEAKER_00: We don't want to be in the position of that Palm Sunday crowd where we want power exercised by Jesus on behalf of our preferred policies in the country we happen to be in, in the century we happen to live in, because maybe we're afraid of losing power or influence in society.
SPEAKER_00: We have to resist this temptation to be war wagers as believers.
SPEAKER_00: And to be known as culture warriors, at least not the main thing that we're about.
SPEAKER_00: It shouldn't be that.
SPEAKER_00: What is Jesus all about?
SPEAKER_00: He is about ruling in hearts, he is about saving precious souls.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus did not push to affect public policy in that society.
SPEAKER_00: He preached the kingdom of God, faith and repentance.
SPEAKER_00: He preached a kingdom from another world that was breaking into this one.
SPEAKER_00: He did not push for the secular government to adopt certain laws or policies.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't even seem to care about that very much.
SPEAKER_00: He was not on a war horse, so to speak, to assure that his followers had power in that society or that their policies might prevail.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, sometimes we should advocate for certain policies in our society.
SPEAKER_00: Run for office.
SPEAKER_00: This is a privilege we have in this country, which most of our Christian brethren in the world do not have, by the way.
SPEAKER_00: But here we have that privilege.
SPEAKER_00: So, yes, we can advocate for policies, run for office and so forth.
SPEAKER_00: That's okay, I would say, as long as we're not known for a feisty belligerence.
SPEAKER_00: You know that that's about what that's what the gospel is about, getting our way in society.
SPEAKER_00: So many Christians today have no chance to participate in the ways that we do.
SPEAKER_00: So they can't even think about this kind of thing.
SPEAKER_00: The humble king that we follow actually came in meekness, didn't he?
SPEAKER_00: He abased himself, condescending in a way that exposed him to ridicule and shame and loss.
SPEAKER_00: And we're not greater than our master.
SPEAKER_00: We need to be content with the kind of power that makes us glad to be treated the way he was treated.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to say that again.
SPEAKER_00: We need to be content with the kind of power that makes us glad to be treated the way he was treated.
SPEAKER_00: If we're on the losing end in our culture, so was our Lord.
SPEAKER_00: If we're mistreated, it's okay.
SPEAKER_00: So was our Lord.
SPEAKER_00: If we're hated and our agenda in society loses, that's okay.
SPEAKER_00: That happened to him too.
SPEAKER_00: We are not culture warriors if we follow him.
SPEAKER_00: We are gospel warriors willing to die for the cause.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: Just as Jesus did.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, don't read me wrong, there's room for advocacy, for policy, and so forth.
SPEAKER_00: But let's not be known for that as the first thing the gospel is about.
SPEAKER_00: So in our passage, we note that there were different reactions to what was happening here.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 16, the disciples didn't understand things at first, but later, when he was glorified, that is, when he went to the cross and died, they remembered that the prophecies had been written about him.
SPEAKER_00: The Holy Spirit, as promised, brought these things back to their minds later.
SPEAKER_00: And you'll remember that they also didn't get when Jesus said very plainly a couple of days before, I'm going to be handed over to the authorities and put to death and be raised from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: That also had to come to their minds later on.
SPEAKER_00: He predicted these wonderful things, and they didn't get it till later.
SPEAKER_00: Application for us?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe.
SPEAKER_00: At least I like this application.
SPEAKER_00: It's okay to not get things right away.
SPEAKER_00: It's okay to not get it right away.
SPEAKER_00: It's human.
SPEAKER_00: Often we need the Spirit's help to just begin to understand something, and we start to understand it over a long period of time.
SPEAKER_00: That's okay.
SPEAKER_00: Dumb, dumb little application for us right there in the middle.
SPEAKER_00: What other reactions do we see?
SPEAKER_00: Verse 17, the crowd has seen the raising of Lazarus from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: They continue to do what Christians do.
SPEAKER_00: They bore witness about it.
SPEAKER_00: They told others about it.
SPEAKER_00: They pointed people to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Here he is.
SPEAKER_00: Here is the man from heaven, the one who has miraculous power.
SPEAKER_00: Here is the Lamb of God sent into the world to save us.
SPEAKER_00: They pointed to him.
SPEAKER_00: And verse 18 notes that the reason the crowd had gone out is because they'd seen, they'd heard about the Lazarus miracle, and they went to see Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I think we can learn from that as well.
SPEAKER_00: When we are bearing witness and pointing others to Jesus, there he is, we need to direct people to the Lord's miracles, especially the greatest one of all, the resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: We even sang about that in one of the songs today, too.
SPEAKER_00: By miracle he was born witness to.
SPEAKER_00: And they establish his credentials as the Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: Then at verse 19, we see the reaction of the Pharisees, the last verse in the passage.
SPEAKER_00: The reaction of the Pharisees.
SPEAKER_00: They said to each other, You see that you're gaining nothing.
SPEAKER_00: Or as the NIV translates it, see, this is getting us nowhere.
SPEAKER_00: Look how the whole world has gone after him.
SPEAKER_00: They were exasperated, the Pharisees were.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus was gaining a following.
SPEAKER_00: This was a threat to them.
SPEAKER_00: Now it's a slight exaggeration at this point to say the whole world has gone after Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: But it's also an interesting irony that John puts in here.
SPEAKER_00: They didn't know how true it was what they were saying.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel was going to go to the whole world.
SPEAKER_00: And here we are, on the other side of the world, so long after that.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel has gone to the whole world and is in the process of still going to the whole world.
SPEAKER_00: They were right about that, and they were frustrated.
SPEAKER_00: And so my last point, point four, praise forever.
SPEAKER_00: The plan unfolds, prophecy fulfilled, power misunderstood, praise forever.
SPEAKER_00: The different groups here with their different reactions illustrate the larger point that John is making in his gospel: that Jesus is the one at the center of history, the one who has come from heaven, who is the very word of God, who is in fact God, John chapter 1, and he came that people might hear the word of the gospel and believe and be saved.
SPEAKER_00: And so he is to be praised.
SPEAKER_00: In Luke's version of the triumphal entry, as it's often called, we read that the Pharisees, who were not liking this at all, they said, they cried out to Jesus, Teacher, rebuke your disciples.
SPEAKER_00: And what did he say?
SPEAKER_00: I tell you, if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: That's how great and majestic this Messiah is.
SPEAKER_00: If the people didn't praise him, the inanimate creation itself would cry out and praise him.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus enters Jerusalem for the final week of his earthly life.
SPEAKER_00: He goes to die.
SPEAKER_00: To absorb the wrath of God on behalf of sinners.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus had no sins of his own.
SPEAKER_00: He absorbs, he takes the wrath of God.
SPEAKER_00: He dies for me and for you and for all who call on his name and believe.
SPEAKER_00: I hope we read all these accounts this week as we have time.
SPEAKER_00: Holy Week, to get to be more and more familiar with them as we go from Palm Sunday to Easter.
SPEAKER_00: We'll hear more about what the humble king did on Good Friday in Daniel's message there, and then on Sunday he'll be preaching on the resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: So I won't say more about those things right now.
SPEAKER_00: But I will say the humble, peaceful king who came is coming again.
SPEAKER_00: The powerful conquering king that the ancient Jews were looking for is going to be back in a way that's rather like what they were hoping for, right?
SPEAKER_00: He will trade his crown of thorns for a crown of gold.
SPEAKER_00: Crowns plural.
SPEAKER_00: He will trade the lowly donkey for a war horse.
SPEAKER_00: Will he not?
SPEAKER_00: Have you read the end of the book?
SPEAKER_00: Book of Revelation, chapter 19.
SPEAKER_00: We observe the King Jesus coming again.
SPEAKER_00: And John says, I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse.
SPEAKER_00: The one sitting on it is called faithful and true, and in righteousness he judges and makes war.
SPEAKER_00: His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, crowns.
SPEAKER_00: And he has a name written on him that no one knows but himself.
SPEAKER_00: He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: It's coming.
SPEAKER_00: And riding alongside him in that scene, the armies of heaven on white horses.
SPEAKER_00: What a day of glory that'll be.
SPEAKER_00: That'll be the real and ultimate triumphant entry.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: It's still ahead of us.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know this king?
SPEAKER_00: Do you love him?
SPEAKER_00: Have you bowed your knee to him and come to believe and trust in his sacrifice for you that you might be freed from your sins forever?
SPEAKER_00: Please do that if you have not.
SPEAKER_00: And uh come to me or one of the elders and be glad to pray with you or help you to meet Jesus for the first time for yourself.
SPEAKER_00: For all of us who have already believed, do you love him?
SPEAKER_00: Do you long for his coming?
SPEAKER_00: Is your life devoted to him?
SPEAKER_00: Are all the priorities of your life arranged around his priorities?
SPEAKER_00: Is he at the center of all your longings and hopes and dreams?
SPEAKER_00: And do you speak to others about him?
SPEAKER_00: King Jesus, the one who rode into Jerusalem to die for us, says at the end of the Bible, Behold, I am coming soon.
SPEAKER_00: Hosanna, blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Jesus, King of the universe.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
SPEAKER_00: Above all other things we could say, we say thank you and praise you.
SPEAKER_00: We praise you for coming.
SPEAKER_00: We praise you for riding into town in a surprising, meek, and lowly way, to work out a plan by which you would die for sins that you don't have at all, but for ours.
SPEAKER_00: And thank you, Lord, that you were victorious over sin and death by dying on the cross and then rising victoriously from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: We look forward to the next couple of messages here.
SPEAKER_00: Do we hear more about those things that we might exalt in?