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Good morning, Grace Church. So good to see all of you this morning, to be worshiping Jesus with all of you. Thank you for those of you who are joining us online or watching from one of our other venues. If you have a Bible or Bible app, I encourage you to turn to John chapter 6. We're looking at a familiar story. It's Jesus feeding the 5,000. But I think you're going to learn something a little bit different this morning as we look at this text. We begin our new teaching series called The King. And it is a three-week series examining our misplaced expectations on Jesus as the King we want. And it is going to help us embrace Jesus as the King he says he is. You know, we live in a world that often tries to co-opt Jesus for their own personal agenda. And that's not new. That's been going on for the last 2,000 years. And we're going to understand exactly why people want to use Jesus to endorse their agenda, but how Jesus really will not allow people to put a title on him that he does not give himself. You know, a lot of people don't know the true story of George Washington, but when George Washington led the United States, at that time the colonies, in revolt against England, and then they actually won their independence, it was five years after the winning of the Revolutionary War before George Washington was actually placed as president of the United States. It took five years because once George Washington led the U.S. against uh England, he wanted to retire. And so while all of the people of the colonies wanted George Washington to become their king, to become their leader, he wanted nothing to do with it. And so he retired to his farm, Mount Vernon, and for five years he lived in relative peace until the people of the colonies and these newly formed United States ushered together and sent representatives and delegates to implore him to come be the president of the United States. And he begrudgingly did so. Unlike other presidents who desperately want to lead this nation, he really did not want to become the president of the United States. And he even wrote in a letter to one friend that becoming president felt to him like a man being led to his execution. He didn't want the job, but the people thrust him into leadership regardless of what he actually wanted. And for the sake of the people, he served these United States and established the United States of America. Now in John chapter 6, you're going to see people in Jesus' day try to do the same thing with Jesus. He was gaining fame, he was gaining popularity, he was gaining prestige, and the people wanted to grab him and seize him and place him into a position of power and to lead them. So with that in mind, let's look at John chapter 6, verses 1 through 15, the feeding of the 5,000. After this, Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias, and a large crowd was following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick. Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples. Now the Passover feast, uh the feast of the Jews, was at hand, and lifting up his eyes then, and seeing that a large crowd was coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat? He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do. Philip answered, Two hundred denari worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get a little bit. So one of his disciples, Andrew, Simon's Peter's brother, said to him, There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many? Well, then Jesus said, Have the people sit down. Now there was much grass in the place, so the men sat down, about five thousand in number. Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated. So also the fish, as much as they wanted, and when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, Gather up the leftover fragments that nothing may be lost. And so they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten. When the people saw the sign that Jesus had done, they said, This is indeed the prophet who is coming into the world. And perceiving that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew to the mountain by himself. The most fascinating part of this passage is not the feeding of the five thousand. That's the miraculous part. The fascinating part is how humans human can be. All of their needs had been met. Jesus was feeding the five thousand, Jesus was healing the sick, and this man who is doing everything for them, they were immediately going to seize him, take him by force, not by his will, but by force, and make them their king. Why do people do this? Well, because people want leaders who solve their physical problems, don't we? That's what people want. People want leaders who lead in such a way that meet their own personal needs. And humanity as a whole admires leaders who solve problems. And if you have Instagram or Facebook, uh, just get on there for a little while. There are influencers with thousands of people who follow them because they meet real practical needs. Oftentimes, this will happen in my household, Amy and I will be talking about what we would like to eat that week. And we open up Instagram and we go to Slow Cooker Meals Lady, and we see what she's making this week. And we'll watch her videos, we'll go buy some stuff, and we'll make a slow cooker Instagram meal because that's what we're doing. She's meeting a real need for us. You know, if you ever have questions, how do I make the most out of my money? Just go to Instagram or Facebook. Dave Ramsey will tell you what to do. How, you know, what do I do when I feel stuck emotionally? There's a thousand influencers out there that do that. How do I change my body? Right? Fitness influencers. They're everywhere. When people solve a real problem, they begin to get a following. And that's what Jesus was doing here in the passage. He's solving people's real problems. He's healing them from their physical sicknesses. He's meeting their actual needs for food. This is a guy that if you're around, you're experiencing the abundance of blessing of being in his presence. Now, I would imagine that if we saw somebody who was walking around and healing the sick today, that'd be quite the spectacle, wouldn't it? True, genuine, miraculous healings. If there was one man with genuine power and authority like Jesus walking the earth today, who just the hem of his garments could heal the physical body, this would begin to attract a following. Because what you're seeing is undeniable power. This is undeniable power, unlike anything that anybody else has had. Now, on top of which you have these unique miracles, the feeding of the 5,000, and some scholars estimate that it was more like 15,000 people, if you include the women and the children. Nobody had fed that many people in the nation of Israel since the time of Moses in the Exodus when God provided manna in the desert. So when you see a mass feeding of individuals and you see a healing of the many sick, all of the people are only making one possible conclusion. This is a prophet of God. This is a man that is clearly anointed and appointed by God on high to come and be the leader of the people of Israel. And as soon as they saw his power, if you read Matthew 24 or 4, verse 24, this is this incredible little verse. And so his fame, okay, listen to that word. His fame, the reputation, the momentum, the popularity of Jesus spread all throughout Syria. And they brought him some of the sick, a couple of the sick, all of the sick. Everybody starts pouring in to find this man named Jesus, those who are afflicted with various diseases and pains, those who are oppressed by demons, those who are having seizures, the paralytics. And what did he do? He healed them. That's going to make his fame grow even faster. And there was no social media back in the day to put it on online and have everybody around the world see, but the word was out that Jesus was a man of unique power and unique authority, a man who could heal the body, feed the hungry, and sustain life itself. A prophet, a mighty prophet of God. Now, if you understand the history of Israel, the history of Israel is that this nation has had many prophets over the last thousand years before Jesus arrived, declaring that one day a prophet of this magnitude would arrive on the scene, and that this prophet would actually become the king of Israel. 2 Samuel 7, 12 says that I will raise up for you an offspring, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom. So this is an Old Testament prophet that the nation of Israel had read, it was their scriptures, they were looking forward to this incredibly powerful, undeniable presence of God and experience of God on earth. And as they were looking and waiting for the arrival of this individual, when someone with this power shows up, people begin connecting the dots. You see, they weren't wrong when they began to see Jesus as king because he was king. They simply had a misplaced understanding of what kind of kingdom Jesus was going to lead. You see, they desperately wanted a Jesus that would endorse their political and sociological identity at their time in history. And so when they see this powerful man, they begin to say, this is the king, which is the right association, but it's the wrong coronation. They didn't understand what kind of king Jesus truly was. Now, if you are a oppressed individual, you are living under a Roman occupation, and you see what is a perceived answer to thousands of years of prayer and history all culminating at once. You have this incredible man with undeniable power who can heal the sick, and in a couple passages later you see that he will raise the dead, and then a few passages after that you see that he feeds not just 5,000, but another group of 4,000. So these miraculous miracles upon miracles upon miracles, you start to begin to have some hopes about grabbing more power than you probably should reach for. And if you can get this man to be your leader, then you'll probably have a good chance of overthrowing the Roman government. Because if Jesus can heal and Jesus can feed, well, what else can this man do? These are real questions. They start to breed in the heart of mankind. And so if I'm a politician or a strategical thinker, here's what I'm thinking. I have a man who can feed thousands with very little. I have a man who can heal anybody upon the word or the touch, and here's what that means. If I'm going to raise up an army of people to overthrow Rome, I'm going to need an army of people that one need to be fed, and I'm going to need an army of people that, if they get injured, could be magically and wonderfully healed. And if you had an army that could be healed instantaneously and fed continuously, do you know what's going to happen? You can take over Rome. And if you can take over Rome, what else can you take over? You can take over the world. These are not dumb people. They're just people who are thinking differently about what's possible in the world now that a man like this exists. And so they want to seize him and make him their king. Now, what they did 2,000 years ago is really just precedent, right? All throughout history, people have seen this man Jesus. They've seen his power, they've heard his message, they've seen his ability to unite and bring people together as well as his ability to push people away. And for centuries, people have been trying to use Jesus for their own agenda. People always try to make Jesus conform to their national identity instead of conforming to his kingdom identity. You'll see this all throughout history. And it was not unique to the Jews. They're just the ones who set precedent for it. That's what John 6.15 says. Perceiving then that they were about to come and make him king, or uh they were about to come and make him king by force, he withdrew to the mountains. See, these people they weren't rejecting Jesus. In fact, most people don't reject the Jesus that they want. When Jesus meets their perceived need, when Jesus endorses their agenda, when Jesus does exactly what they want their fun little Jesus to do, they will readily embrace Jesus. And so they don't reject Jesus. They are embracing Jesus, but they're embracing a Jesus by trying to define him without his permission. Have you ever met a king that would allow you to tell him who he is? No. Have you ever met a king ever? I haven't, despite the protests. All right. The reality is people in positions of authority will not allow the people to define who they are. And the same way with Jesus. Jesus is not going to let the people define who he is, what his mission is, and what he came here to do. Now, the people wanted somebody who could meet all their needs and establish their version of the kingdom, but Jesus simply wouldn't allow it. Now the Jewish people were not the first people to do this, if you or were not the last people to do this. If you look at the early church, the first three centuries of Christianity, from the year 33 to about the year 323, those 300 years, the church had zero political authority. They had no social standing. They lived in a society where for 300 years to be a follower of Jesus meant actual persecution, actual rejection, the inability to conduct commerce with certain uh business entities. But through 300 years of people surrendered to the agenda of Jesus, making him the king that he actually is, the gospel spread like crazy. Eventually, there were so many followers of Jesus in Rome that politically it became necessary for the Roman government to adopt Christianity as its official religion. And when that happened, it now became advantageous on a political and economical level to be a follower of Jesus, to be what we call culturally Christian. I think a lot of us in this room are familiar with cultural Christianity. This is how we live in the United States of America. There are certain times when it's advantageous to be identified with the person of Jesus in the United States. That's cultural Christianity. That's not surrendered Christianity, it's not conversion of the heart. It's simply I'm a follower of God, I believe in God, I'm a Christian because I live here in this place where there's so many people that call themselves Christians. Well, when it becomes advantageous to be a Christian in any particular society for political reasons, what once required repentance in order to be a part of the kingdom of heaven now only simply requires some participation. You can just show up and be a part of it. Do the Christian thing for whatever given reason. And the kingdom then gets confused with this political control, where the kingdom of heaven and the nation that exists, they're trying to co-opt one another, and the nation likes to say that its agenda is the same agenda as the agenda of Jesus. Now that happened in Rome. But it didn't just happen in Rome. We'll fast forward a couple hundred years after that, maybe a couple thousand years. Now we have the Church of Rome and a very uh number of European kings, specifically the King of England and the King of France. Jerusalem had been overtaken by the Middle Eastern Muslims, and all of the kings of Europe decided to partner with the Pope of Rome and send in a whole bunch of crusaders to liberate Jerusalem. Not to preach the gospel and change the hearts and minds of people through repentance and bring a godless people back into a relationship with a saving God, but to send a military campaign into a political city to slay thousands of individuals for the sake of not the gospel, but political and economic gain. If you know your history, go read your history and learn about this. Had nothing to do with Jesus, had nothing to do with even the church's power, had everything to do with various European kings and their decision to figure out economic and political practices that were beneficial and advantageous to them. Fast forward to today. There is a fraction of the American political identity where faith is being tied to national identity. And now Jesus is becoming a means to justify political sides instead of becoming the king that every Christian chooses to submit to. This is not new. This has been going on for 2,000 years because humans are so human. They see somebody that they think they want to hitch their wagon tube, but what they really want to do is they want that person to champion all of the things they care about, all the things they're passionate about. And if Jesus gives me a thumbs up, then he must be giving everybody else a thumbs down. Some Christians, maybe you in this room or watching online, you need to hear what I'm about to tell you. God does not endorse political agendas. God does not endorse political agendas. God endorses the agenda of his son Jesus. The agenda of Jesus is to usher in the kingdom of heaven where the hearts of men who believe in him are yielded to him in full obedience. And the flourishing of your faith is not dependent upon the government that you live under or the freedoms that you have. There is nothing about the Father that looks at a political party or a national movement and says, Yes, I'm on board with them. God doesn't join your cause, you join his cause. Do you get that? This is what we're called to do. It's a challenging thing for those of us who live in this world when we see there's some very clear things that are opposed to the things that we believe. But God is not calling you to join with people, he's calling you to join with him. And the moment we try to reshape Jesus to fit our priorities, we have stopped following him and we have started using him. That's how that works. Our hearts conform to his, not his heart to us. We've got to get the order right. And when you have people, genuinely surrendered people, the kingdom of God really begins to expand, regardless of whatever the political or governmental structure it lives under. I already talked about the early church. They expanded over the course of 300 years. 300 years. They had no political identity, they had no social status, no understanding of what their freedoms were. In fact, they were oftentimes persecuted and killed simply for proclaiming the name of Jesus. And what happened? It took over the entire nation. Because the kingdom of heaven is not dependent upon any government or political structure to have its back. It stands alone on its own. If you've not read the Celtic mission movement of the 5th and 7th centuries, I highly recommend you should. Rome had expanded all over Europe and it made its way all the way over to Britain and Ireland. But eventually, Rome couldn't sustain its power with that much distance, and so they began to pull back. There was a 200-year period between the 5th and 7th century where Ireland and Britain were pretty much tribal rule. And who better than Saint Patrick to arrive on the scene in that time and begin preaching the gospel among the tribes? And as people begin giving their life over to Jesus, you have a unified and uniform nation of Ireland that comes out of that, and a unified nation of Britain that comes out of that, because you had one man, regardless of political standing, regardless of status, who took the gospel to people who desperately needed it, and he suffered, and many people suffered for it, but the church grew and overcame. Pastor Rob mentioned last week the underground church in China. You know, Christianity was outlawed in China in 1949. 70 years ago, 78 years ago. Is that right? 77 years ago. My math is not good. Help me out. I shouldn't do math in the middle of preaching. That's not a good idea. Many, many years ago. Long time, long time, long time. It was outlawed. The Communist Party said it simply cannot exist here, and they were trying to suppress the movement of believers. And it grew from one million people in 1949 to tens of millions of believers today. The church in China is massive, evangelical, gospel preaching, Bible believing individuals, and that is the case for the kingdom of heaven. Heaven is not dependent on political or government structures because Jesus is not a political leader. He is a king of his own kingdom. And that kingdom begins and reigns over the hearts of men. But look, the kingdom of heaven does not need a throne on this earth in order to grow. It needs surrendered people. That's what it needs. It needs people who are willing to champion the agenda of Jesus no matter the risk. Because the kingdom of heaven advances when people lay down their agendas and take up the agenda of Jesus. That's how the kingdom works. Listen to John chapter 12, verses 12 through 13. This is the Palm Sunday passage that many of you are familiar with. It's the Palm Sunday passage that inspires the palms in your hand. But Jesus clearly had a great crowd. We talked about his fame growing. We talked about everybody following him here the week before he's about to be crucified. He enters the city of Jerusalem. And the very next day, the great crowd that had come for the festival heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. And so they took palm branches and they went out to meet him, shouting, Hosanna, blessed is the King of Israel. What is so fascinating about this verse is that this is a coronation passage. When you understand what's happening here, the laying down of the palms, palms were a symbol of Jewish victory and nationalism that arose from the Maccabean Revolt just a few hundred years earlier. So this is a political symbol, all right? These are powerful images in the nation of Israel. This is like the uh red, white, and blue flag of the United States. When you put that patch on something, it's a powerful symbol. The palms are a symbol of victory and national identity for the Jewish people. And so they have these palms, and they are coming before Jesus and they're laying them down at his feet. In other words, they are trying to thrust Jesus into a coronation moment where he would take on the mantle of king. And it's right for them to do this, by the way. It's not wrong at all. It's right for them to acknowledge that Jesus is the king, but it's their very own agenda of trying to make him a political king that actually led to the end of this movement. You see, at this moment, right now, Jesus had more momentum, more energy, more influence, more opportunity than the Jewish people had seen in hundreds of years to actually make themselves a presence in the Middle East, overthrow Rome, and establish a whole new kingdom. There had never been a moment like this, and so the tide was strong. Now there's a lot of strong political movements today, aren't there? You know what it's like to want to join or to be against strong political movements because they're happening all around you. You have thousands and thousands and thousands of people with a strong national identity tied to a prophetic message about a coming king. This is a strong political movement. It's not just a religious movement, it's a political movement, and the powers and the tides are loaded with opportunity, and it's a very unique situation that could bring outright rebellion inside of Jerusalem and inside of Israel. And Rome was very threatened by that. Make no mistake, they did not want this man to take on the mantle of king. So the palms are laid, the people are decreeing this is the king of Israel. Right? Hosanna, blessed is the king of Israel. Not Hosanna, blessed is the Son of God, or Hosanna, blessed is the Son of Man, or Hosanna, blessed is the kingdom of heaven. No, Hosanna, blessed is the king of Israel. They took God in flesh and tried to make him far more human than he ever decreed himself to be. Now, this coronation was a death sentence. If you're in a political structure and a person is anointed king over a nation that you occupy, and there's thousands of people on his side, and the rumblings are real, there's about to be war and rebellion, that coronation moment was the beginning of Jesus' death sentence. That's when it happened. Before this moment, he was a prophet. Before this moment, he was like John the Baptist out in the wilderness. And Israel was used to prophets. But in this moment, Rome looked at what happened with Jesus riding it on a donkey, and the nation of Israel looked at what happened with Jesus riding it on a donkey with palms down. They anointed and coronated him king, and Rome said, That man's probably gonna have to die. It's a death sentence. Nobody wants to be the head of a political movement when there's a large, powerful force coming against you. Have you seen what's happening in Iran in the last couple of weeks? How many political leaders have been taken out in Iran? Because what do you try to do when there's a large political movement or a bastion of people and you are going against them? You take out the leaders first. That is a political and strategic move that's been used throughout history, and they're going to do it now with the person of Jesus. Now their agenda kept them from seeing Jesus' real agenda. See, Jesus' agenda is to establish the kingdom of heaven on earth. It's a kingdom without geopolitical boundaries. It's a kingdom with a king that reigns over hearts and the minds of all people. And Jesus was never shy about that message. He spoke it very plainly, but people are blind and they don't want to hear it. I'm going to take you on a brief journey through Jesus' ministry. Jesus never once claimed to be the king of Israel in a political sense, but he always claimed to be king. From the time that he taught his disciples how to pray. When he taught his disciples how to pray, he said, Here's how you should pray. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Jesus is already alluding to the fact that his kingdom is a spiritual kingdom, that he already reigns in heaven. Let's see the same rain happen here on earth. He then goes through a series of parables. And if you've been here the last seven weeks at all, you know that we've been doing parables, teaching parables on the kingdom of heaven. And all of those parables begin with the kingdom of heaven is like. Why? Because Jesus is trying to help you understand his kingdom. I am praying the kingdom of heaven comes. Here's what the kingdom of heaven is actually like. And then when Jesus is arrested and brought before Pilate, and he's being questioned, and they say, Jesus, are you a king? Jesus does not deny being king. He simply looks at Pilate and says, That my kingdom is not of this world. So Jesus knows he's king. But he's never claimed to have a political kingdom, but a spiritual one. And the followers of Jesus, both when they were with Jesus, had a hard time seeing it, and 2,000 years later, the followers of Jesus still have a hard time understanding that Jesus does not care about political kingdoms, he cares about his kingdom. It's just hard to get our head around because it's not what we want. We want Jesus to do what we want him to do, and yet Jesus always calls us to conform to his image, not his to ours. It's a common problem. I see it all the time. And not just on a political level, I see it on deep personal levels with individuals. If Jesus doesn't provide for me the way I want him to provide, then I don't want anything to do with Jesus. If Jesus doesn't give me the promotion I've been praying for, then it's Jesus' fault and not my own. If Jesus would just take this suffering away from me, but he didn't, therefore I can blame Jesus. Or if the answer is simply wait, not right now, then well, I don't want to wait, Jesus, and why can't you hurry up and get on board with what I need you to do? When Jesus doesn't conform to our agenda, do you know what words begin to leave our mouth? Crucify him. Crucify him. Crucify him. And for 2,000 years, people have been crucifying Jesus with their words when he doesn't conform to their agenda. Friends, Jesus will never conform to your agenda. And I am certain there's already been times in your life where you've been tempted to say, crucify him, crucify him, crucify him with your heart. Where you've hardened your heart to him, you don't want to conform to him, you don't want to do what he asks for a really strong reason. He didn't do what you wanted. It's the human condition. Jesus will not let you crucify him. Jesus will take the nails, Jesus will take the crown of thorns, Jesus will take the lashings, and Jesus will even give up his life, but he won't let you keep him dead. Jesus is a resurrecting Jesus. Jesus is the living God with power over life and death. So as much as humanity has tried to crucify him, he keeps coming back. Because his kingdom is not of this world, it is a heavenly and spiritual kingdom. One of my favorite Bible verses is Revelation chapter 7, verses 9 through 10. It's a vision of what eternity looks like. There are palms only a couple places in the Bible. Once when people tried to lay down their palms and make Jesus the King they wanted with the coronation service, and then the second time in Revelation, when people are raising their palms in recognition that this is the king. This is the king. So when you came in this morning, you were given palms. This is not for your children, although I'm sure they like them. These are for you. This is for us, church. Because in just a moment, we're going to enter a final song of worship. And here's the end result. You ready? At the end, everybody raises palms to Jesus. Everybody coronates him as the king over their heart and over all of eternity. He is the one who is king. Now, if you did not get a palm when you came into the room, here's what's not a mistake. You ready? What are these called? Palms. Okay. Everybody raises palms to the king. And this morning, we will too. Will you stand with me and worship our Jesus the way he's meant to be worshipped?