How Do We Go From Praise to Rejection

Palm Sunday starts with celebration, but ends with a hard question. How do people go from praising Jesus to rejecting Him just days later?

In this message, Pastor Ruben walks through the triumphal entry in Mark 11 and shows how easy it is to want a version of Jesus that fits our expectations, while missing who He actually is. This message helps us look honestly at our own faith and invites us into a life of real surrender, not just surface-level belief.

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Transcript

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- Hey, this is Phil Kal, lead pastor at Hope City Church. Thanks for tuning into our podcast. My prayer is that this helps and encourages you, gives you some practical ways to live out your faith and ultimately fills you with hope. Enjoy the message.- I'm not sure how much we know each other, but something you have to know about me is, I'll have to admit, I'm not a very fun person to be around when I'm in a rush. I'm very short with people. I'm quick, uh, whatever it may be. And to be honest with you, I was never really in a rush in life until I got married. And, uh, when I was single and I had an appointment coming up, oh man, 10 minutes before in case I wanna find better parking, get a cup of coffee, easy now I'm sending 22 apology texts to people for every delay we hit when my wife says five more minutes.'cause I don't know what that means anymore, , is it five minutes-ish? Is it five hours-ish? Is it tomorrow ish? I don't know. But the bottom line, it's like I like to be prepared. Like when you go to a, a coffee shop and the person at the till is there and they're like, um, what do you mean? Um, you had 15 minutes in the line for your ums men. You can relate with me on this one. Maybe when you, when you have a a date night or a family event, you will think about ahead in advance where the venue's located. Where are you gonna get parking and what is the quickest way to get there? Anyone with me on that one? I'm not sure if I'm the okay. A few men. Okay, well I'm not psychotic. Um, I don't have to give a prophecy, but this is the closest to I will get. But in all seriousness, when you're with someone who is prepared, there's this calmness and confidence to the person next to them. And it gives us this feeling that everything is gonna be all right and everything is going to work out. We know where we're going and we know where we need to go. Being prepared brings order to the chaos. It's like this exhale moment after suffocating. It's the calmness in the waves. If you're just joining us, we are in a series or a collection of talks called This is Jesus. And if I were to ask you the question, who is Jesus? What is the first thing that would come to mind or you would say to somebody, A man by the name of a w Tozer once said that whatever comes to mind when we think about God is of the utmost importance to us. And I agree because whatever you think about Jesus affects your daily living. Because if you see God as someone who's ready to sm down some lightning, then you're always gonna live in fear. But on the other end of the spectrum, if you see God as someone who is a substitute teacher at school, then you're gonna live life abusing grace. What would you say if someone asked you the question, who is Jesus? Uh, as we've been journeying towards Easter, we've also been journeying to uh, through the Book of Mark with one of the gospels. And it paints really a beautiful picture of who Jesus is. You see every gospel, which is Matthew, mark, Luke, John, provide this unique but complimentary view of Jesus. And the Book of Marks specifically, oh, it is like, it is like Jesus in action. This is a fast-paced gospel. I love this gospel 'cause I have a DHD. So I call this the A DHD gospel because over 40 times the author keeps saying immediately and and then, which is like, this is my speed. This morning as it is Palm Sunday, I wanna read a portion of the Bible that will be appropriate with this time of the year. This piece of the Bible is called a Jesus Triumphal entry and it's an all four gospel. So it really highlights the importance of this event. And although as we read, you might think this looks a little chaotic or as I alluded to before, a little bit unprepared, there's a layer to it that God wants to reveal to us that he is prepared, he's a prepared God, and he has laid everything out with intention and according to his plan. Because so often we as Christians, we want a God who would quickly react to our situations. But as a matter of fact, we actually have a God who is, has prepared everything since the beginning and the start. So we're gonna read in the book of Mark chapter 11 for the first 11 verses, this is what the Bible says. It says as Jerusalem as not Jerusalem. As Jesus and his disciples approached Jerusalem, they came to the towns of Beth Phage and Bethany on the Mount of Olives. Now Jesus sent two of them on ahead and he said, go into that village over there. As soon as you enter it, you'll see a young donkey tied there that no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks, what are you doing, just say the Lord needs it and we'll return it soon. So the two deci disciples left and found the cold standing in the street tied around the front door as they were untying it, some bystanders demanded, what are you doing untying that cult? They said what Jesus had told them to say and they were permitted to take it. Then they brought the cult to Jesus and threw their garments over it. And he sat on it. Now, scenes changing a little bit. Now they're in the public. Many in the crowd spread their garments on the road ahead of them as he's coming in and others spread leafy branches. Another translation says, palm branches, they cut in the fields. Jesus was in the center of the procession. And the people all around him were shouting, praise God. Another translation says, Hosanna, Hosanna in the highest blessings on the one who comes in the name of the Lord. Blessings on the king coming kingdom of our answers, David, praise God. Or Hosanna in the highest heaven. This is what they're chanting. So Jesus came to Jerusalem and went into the temple. After looking around carefully at everything, he left it because it was late in the afternoon. Then he returned to Bethany with the 12 disciples. Okay, let's break it down a little bit so we know what we're getting ourselves into. Palm Sunday or the triumphal entry marks the beginning of holy week. So Palm Sunday will be today and then this coming Thursday will be the last supper. And then the next day will be the crucifixion. And then spoil alert three days later is Resurrection Sunday. Jesus, uh, geographically is entering Jerusalem from the east. And so he's coming from the Bible says Bethany, where he's hanging out with Mary, Martha and Lazarus. If you've seen uh, read that story before. And he's coming to setting down the Mount of Olives into Jerusalem. So now that we have the time and setting, let's look into the the vibe and the atmosphere that's happening in this moment. If we were to envelop ourselves into the story and be living as we're reading, you would see that the environment, it is a party. It is a parade. Everyone is dancing, everyone is shouting, everyone is celebrating, people are lined up in the street. This is a longer line than a Chick-fil-A opening. They're throwing their cloaks on the ground. They're cutting palm branches and they're waving them in the air. And this is what they're shouting. They're shouting. Hosanna son of David. Hosanna is important to understand this. It means save us now or save us please. Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest friends, this is loud, this is emotional, this is public, this is there essential worship. But here lies the tension. Now because five days later, same city, same people, different chant, right? We haven't read this portion of the Bible just yet, but we started off with the crowd singing. Hosanna save us now. And then five days later, that same crowd will be yelling, crucify him, kill him now. And so Palm Sunday forces us to wrestle with this uncomfortable truth. And this is it. How do you go from Hosanna to crucify? Like how do you go from praise to rejection? How do you go from celebrating Jesus to turning your back towards him?'cause if we're honest with ourselves, every one of us finds ourself in at this point from time to time. Every single one of us can relate to the people in the crowd. And so because of that, here are a few takeaway truths from this piece of scripture. Understanding its context and what it means for us in the crowd. And the first thing is this. Number one is you could be loud about Jesus, but still miss him. You can be emotional about him, but still miss the point. The crowd is shouting hosanna and like mentioned before. It means save us now. And honestly, on the surface it sounds right, like it sounds like you're going in the right direction. It sounds super spiritual. It sounds like something that you would say in church. But here's the problem. They were saying all the right words, but they were meaning the wrong thing. Because when they said, save us, now, what they actually meant was, you know, please save us from Rome. Save us from the Roman oppression. Save us from our situation, make our lives better. And they weren't wrong about needing saving, they were just wrong about what they needed saving from because they wanted external change. But Jesus came to bring transformation from the inside out. They wanted a political king, but they got someone who was serving at the lowest level. They wanted someone who's gonna overthrow Rome. But Jesus came to overthrow the root of all the problem. And that's sin. And this is what can hit close to home to us if we don't acknowledge it. Because here's a tough truth to swallow. We do the exact same thing, right? Like we say, Jesus saved me. But what we really mean actually is Jesus, fix my situation or Jesus make my life easier, or Jesus, remove me from this discomfort. Jesus just gimme what I want. But I wonder how many times we intentionally pray Jesus deal with my sin. Jesus confront my pride. Jesus, change my heart. See, unfortunately, live in a culture that portrays Jesus and Christianity as this quick fix magic. You see, we'll invite him when it feels comfortable. We'll reject him when it feels uncomfortable. And so if we're not careful, you can spend your whole life being loud about Jesus and emotional about him, yet still miss him completely. The second thing we see in the crowd that day is this, it's, it's misplaced. Expectations lead to a missed revelation. And here's what I mean by that. It's a, it's a bit heartbreaking when you read and look into this piece of text, understand what the crowd represents. Because they didn't just misunderstand Jesus. They had already decided he was supposed to be and they already put him in a box. They have already built a version of Jesus in their minds. And it was this version that matched their desires. It was this version that fit that that fit their expectations, a version that would do what they wanted him to do. And when the real Jesus showed up, oh boy, it didn't match at all because they were expecting a lion. And what the God was a lamb? What they're expecting is someone riding on a stallion with a sword. He came riding on a donkey. They're expecting someone to overthrow a Rome. But what they got instead was someone who kept talking about sacrifice, serving in submission. They're expecting someone to be sitting on a throne. But he came caring across. And so that same people that were praising him got now confused and eventually they reject him. Now listen, this is this. This is, this is huge. This is radical. And go with me on this. Jesus is coming. And he came to blow our expectations, blow them out of the water and the people couldn't grasp it or want to grasp it. And Jesus has made some wild claims. I'm not sure if you know that. If you're new to church or new to the Bible, these are some of the claims that Jesus has made. He's claimed to be equal with God. He claimed to be the Messiah sent by God. He claimed to give eternal life. He claimed to save the world and to forgive sins, he claimed to fulfill the law. He claimed to give rest to the weary and the wandering soul. He claimed to be the future judge that you and I would stand before one day. He claimed to be the great I am. He claimed to be the way, the truth and the life. Why am I sharing this with you?'cause you see declarations like that. They demand a response from us. They need a decision from us because you can't just hear these wild claims and in differently pass it by. It is confronting, it is conflicting. It is a moment of consequence. And this is a tough pill to swallow. You either adjust your uh, expectations of Jesus or you reject him fully. A loved one. CS Lewis wrote in his book called Mere Christianity. He says, I'm trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about him. And that is, I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher by don't accept his claim to be God. That is one thing we must not say. A man who is merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic on the level of a man who says he's a poached egg or else he'd be the devil of hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was and is the son of God or else a madman or something worse. So you can shut him up for a fool. You can spit at him and kill him as a demon. Or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us and he did not intend to. I love that. And here's where I'm trying to land, is that Jesus has made some wild claims, beautiful, incredible claims, but often those claims require response from us. And sometimes we just don't want to do it because we want the claims to conform to our lives rather than our lives conform to the claims and the truths that he said. And so maybe just maybe in this room, there are maybe you had an expectation from God and that he would answer by now that he would've came through by now. You thought he was gonna come through in a certain way and fix everything. And when he didn't, maybe something inside of us started to shift. And when we see that tension, we become disappointed, we become confused, and we eventually reject him because we expected him to do what we wanted him to do. But this passage right here, and Palm Sunday teaches us that if we keep getting caught up with the king we wanted, we might actually miss the king we needed all along. And so as a recap, if we're not careful, we could spend our whole lives being loud about Jesus and completely miss him. And our misplaced expectations can lead to a mis revelation. And finally, three, you could be close to Jesus and still not follow him. That's a tough one. It's interesting. At the end of this passage in verse 11, it says, so Jesus came to Jerusalem and went into the temple after looking around carefully at everything carefully. Key word there, he left because it was, it was late in the afternoon. Then he returned to Bethany with the 12 disciples. See carefully at everything. See the the crowd here. You know you. You know the atmosphere, the shouting Hosanna, the moment feels climactic. You expect Jesus to, to take action and take over. But instead, Jesus walks around, looks around. He takes his time because the word used here is carefully. And then he leaves. It's significant to point this out because we need to know and understand that God doesn't always move the way we expect him to move. But also we see time and time again that the temple is the center of it all. And and we see back at earlier in Jesus' life when he was frustrated and mad, maybe you read the story. He flipped tables because of how the religious leaders have been conducting the temple. And I believe it's no different in this moment, the passage we just read. I can't help but imagine Jesus walking to the temple and seeing that worship has turned into a routine, a system that's become corrupt, a place of prayer that has turned into a show. And we can be so quick to point the fingers in the story of the people in the story. But honestly, we may do the same today because we come into church every week greeting at the door, knowing the church song, you using the church language, but still not actually follow him. I'm reminded that Jesus is not impressed with activity. He's not impressed with proximity. He's impressed with genuineness, surrender and authenticity and a prayer for my life. He says, I would never wanna be in a place in my life where I need Jesus to follow me rather than I follow him that my prayers were used as performances so he can be pleased with me. Or that I would use God's platform to serve my own agenda. The question I often hit myself with is, am I gonna follow Jesus or do I just want Jesus to follow me? And so with all that being said as a response, what does that mean for us? How can we take the triumphal entry of Jesus in the Book of Mark and allow Jesus to triumph fully enter our lives and help us not miss the Messiah? I wanna give a couple of application points and using a play on words with word palm. I wanna give uh uh, some practical ways we can respond in four different ways. And the first one is this is is lay down your palms. Lay down your palms, meaning your hands. This is an act of surrender. The crowd laid down the palm branches and it was a sign of honor and submission, but it was temporary because five days later they ran away. They walked away. The truth is that temporary surrender will always lead to eventual rejection. So the question we have to wrestle with is how can we sustain surrender to not allow it to be just emotional feeling, but actually a choice and a lifestyle. Ready? It's this. It's to pray a prayer every morning. Jesus, not my will be yours, simple as that. Jesus is not my will but yours. Palm Sunday teaches us the difference between temporary praise and complete forever surrender. Can you trust Jesus? But can you trust Jesus when he can't see him or feel him? Will our surrender be convenient? Or will our surrender be unconditional and committed? Will Jesus have complete authority over your life? Or will you always live holding something back when you lay down your palms? This is a confession I encourage you to make that all of your expectations wants, needs and desires. Flow from him as a person and a hit in his word. Lay down your palms. Second is extend your palms. This is an act of service. Palms don't just need to be laid down. They need to be extended. Palms need to be an action. Your hands need to be in movement and participation. You see, we say this quite often at our church, that following Jesus is the best decision anyone can make. But following Jesus always leads to us serving others'cause Jesus didn't come to be served. He came to serve. And if your faith hasn't changed how you treat people, I'm sorry, your faith hasn't really fully reached your heart. Because following Jesus means serving people who can't repay you. It's to love people who don't necessarily deserve it or are hard to love. It's showing up when it costs you something. See, the power of serving people puts on display the true Jesus we worship and that we follow and confess. Today, when the gospel reaches your heart, friends, it automatically moves towards your hands. Third is inspect your palms. Understand the moment of sacrifice. And this is a pivotal part of the story of the gospel. And the crowd missed it. They missed it because they celebrated the moment without understanding the cost. And this is us sometimes as well that we want heaven. We just don't like the way to get there. We wanna wear the cross necklace on our chest, but don't wanna carry one on our backs. We want the victory, but we don't want the sacrifice. We'll never fully value King Jesus until we understand the cross and the scars that came out of it. And it sobers me. It sobers me to remind myself as much as I can what it cost him. What did he save me from? Because the cross isn't just a part of the story, friends, it is the story. It is the story. Isaiah 49 says, be behold. I have engraved you on the palms of my hands. Your name is written on the scars of Jesus' hands. A theologian once said that it wasn't nails that held him to the cross, but love did. Another man, Martin Luther once said that the nails that held Jesus to the cross are found in my back pocket. I found those interesting. But it really puts it into perspective for us that your name, your story is right here. It is right here in Jesus' hand. And he holds it close. And his grip is strong as it says in John 10. And no one will snatch them out of my hand. I love that. And then finally, raise your palms. Raise your palms in worship. Raise your palms in adoration, in praise, but not just in moments like this, but with our lives. May my worship not just be conducted by the worship set list at a church service, but may shine through my life even when life is hard. May my worship be consistent. Surrendering and obedient. And I hope that could be your prayer as well.'cause anyone can praise in a moment. A true follower of Jesus worships with our lives so we can worship him. We can worship him. Why? Because he's a prepared God. Our God is a prepared God. If we put ourselves into this text, we can quickly conclude that Jesus was thrown a curve ball and was unprepared. But it was the opposite. The donkey was prepared, the timing was prepared. The prophecy back in Zach Kaiah was prepared and the response was prepared. So Palm Sunday forces us to wrestle with this uncomfortable truth. And that is how do we go from ho hosanna to crucify? How do we go from praise to rejection? How do we go from celebrating Jesus to turning our backs towards him? Are we going to be like the crowd that shouts, crucify him? Or are we gonna be the people that lives our lives singing Hosanna? That's my prayer for all of us, is that we would allow Jesus to triumph fully, enter our lives and live out our lives with our palms laid down, extended sacrifice, and raised in worship. We're conclude, uh, conclude this morning with.