Speaker 1: 0:00

One of the things I love to do before I preach is I love to quote together the simplest, most basic. One of the earliest creeds of the Christian church simply stated Christ has died, christ is risen, christ will come again. Can we say that together? I'll say it and you repeat it Christ has died, christ is risen, christ will come again. That we believe Amen. Would you take your Bible and go to John, chapter 12? We are continuing in our series through the gospel of John and I have the great joy and privilege this morning of preaching from John, chapter 12, verses 12 through 19,.

Speaker 1: 0:46

A text of scripture that is traditionally referred to as the triumphal entry. Let us hear the word of God. The next day, the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, 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. And Jesus found the 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. His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about him and had been done to him. 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. The reason why the crowd went to meet him was that they had heard he had done this sign. So the Pharisees said to one another you see that you are gaining nothing. Look, the world has gone after him. That is God's word. May he add his blessing to its reading and preaching by the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit, amen.

Speaker 1: 2:16

Have you ever been to a championship victory parade? Anybody been to one. Some of us have been. Some of you are patiently waiting to get to one. It's a very rare occasion for a sports team to win a championship, so to be able to gather in the collective time a team in your area wins a championship. Please go and experience the victory parade. It is quite the experience and the Warriors are going to win another one soon. You got Jimmy Butler now. You guys are going to be fine. So if you follow the Warriors, I think you guys are going to be doing pretty good. Go to the parade. It's an amazing experience where the fans and the players and the staff and the city all come together to celebrate their champion.

Speaker 1: 3:13

Now, as you know, I mentioned last time I preached that I had just gotten back from going to the victory parade for the Eagles who won the Super Bowl. But even though that was cool, I still remember my first ever experience at a championship parade. It was back in 2008 when the Philadelphia Phillies of baseball won the World Series. Now, I've been waiting my entire sports life for a moment like that, so it was pretty exciting. But I have to tell you something I did not get to see the final game of the World Series when they won the World Series, so I wasn't going to miss the parade. So the night that they actually won, I actually watched part of the game. It got postponed the day before because of rain and picked up the next day, which I just so happened to be preaching at a youth retreat three hours outside of Philly, in the Pocono Mountains. So I want you to envision this scene with me I'm preaching the gospel to a couple hundred young people and the principal of the school is in the back of the room with a Philly's cap on and headphones, listening to the game.

Speaker 1: 4:18

And so here I am at the end of the sermon pleading with these kids to come to Christ. Suddenly the principal jumps up out of his seat and begins to silent cheer. That's how I found out the Phillies won the World Series. I told the principal after that night. I was like, listen, we got to change the schedule. We got to do the last service early. Let me preach before breakfast, and then I'm flying back to Philly. I am not missing the parade. So I preached, they went to breakfast. I jumped in our old minivan and drove down that mountain three hours straight to Citizens Bank Park where I got to watch the last quarter mile of the victory parade as they arrived at the stadium. It was pretty cool. I'll never forget that experience, especially because of the circumstances surrounding it All.

Speaker 1: 5:08

I have to say, if you ever get a chance to go to a championship parade, even if it's not your team, check it out. It's quite the experience. But imagine with me. Imagine with me throwing a victory parade before you win the championship game. You say that's ludicrous. No one would do that. I mean, despite the odds, even if they were greatly in your favor, no one would ever have the audacity to celebrate a victory before the victory was won. Right, you say that's insane. That might be the case in sports, but it's certainly not the case in our text this morning.

Speaker 1: 5:55

In the triumphal entry, jesus experiences a victory parade of sorts. That's not a stretch before the win. Victory parade of sorts, that's not a stretch before the win. You see, christ's victory over sin and death and hell is so guaranteed church, that before he's betrayed by Judas, before he's deserted by his disciples, before he is arrested and falsely accused by the religious leaders, before he's condemned to death by Roman crucifixion, before he atones for the sins of his church on the cross, before he is buried in a cold and borrowed tomb, before he rises from the dead on the third day, before he ascends to the right hand of the Father and is given a name that is above every name, before the victory, jesus is celebrated as the victor. Why? Because there was no way he wasn't winning. Jesus is the victorious Savior, king, amen.

Speaker 1: 7:12

In our text today, john the Evangelist wants his readers to see how Jesus is on the road to victory and, unlike the normal order of things, there's a sense in which Jesus experiences and willingly receives, willingly receives the praise and adulation of triumph before he emerges victorious over sin and death and hell. You've been following along over the last several weeks. John has set the stage quite well. Jesus is intentionally entering into Jerusalem to die on the cross and rise from the dead. This will not be an accident.

Speaker 1: 8:01

We were told that the religious leaders are plotting to murder Jesus back in chapter 11, verse 53. We were told that the religious leaders are plotting to murder Jesus back in chapter 11, verse 53. We were told that Jesus has been prepared for his burial by Mary's perfume anointing last week in chapter 12, verses 1 through 8. Jesus himself says in the text that Pastor Ricky will be preaching next week, down in chapter 12, verse 23 and 24, that his hour had come, that hour being the moment where he will be glorified and lifted up on the cross and then emerge victorious from the tomb. He said it before, but now it's actually happened. No one would take his life, but here he is now, entering into Jerusalem to willingly lay it down. According to chapter 12, verse 27 and verses 31 and 32, the death that he will willingly die and the resurrection will be triumphant, according to God's purpose. It will accomplish exactly what God intended for it to accomplish. Jesus will glorify the Father. He will die to absorb the judgment of his people from all time, all over the world. The evil one will be cast out and he will draw all people to himself as the victorious Savior of the world. He's going to win. He's going to win and Jesus now, in our text this morning, is entering into Jerusalem to die and rise as that victorious, triumated version of the triumphal entry.

Speaker 1: 9:46

Is how Christ's march to victory demands a response. It demands a response. John's very intentional and maybe you heard it as I read. He's capturing the various responses to the presentation of Jesus as that victorious, redeemer king who's come to die and rise as the savior king of the world. If you didn't catch it, let me just go back before we actually work through it. Notice how John wants us to see how everyone is responding. Notice how he wants us to see the crowd responding for the Passover feast in verses 12 and 13. We're going to look at how they respond. Hosanna, palm branches, all that awesome stuff. He wants us to see how Jesus responds to the crowd responding in verse 15. He wants us to see how the disciples are responding to all that's going on in verse 16. He wants us to see how the crowd different crowd going on in verse 16. He wants us to see how the crowd different crowd that witnessed the resurrection of Lazarus from the dead is responding to all that's going on. And finally, he wants us to see how the Pharisees are responding in verse 19. Now, if you're thinking, man, is that going to be a five-point sermon? No, don't worry, I've reduced it to three.

Speaker 1: 11:01

But here's what John is doing in this short, little abbreviated version of the triumphal entry. He's making the point that the victorious arrival of the Savior King demands a response from everyone, and we could take that and apply it to ourselves now as readers of this gospel and as you're listening to a sermon on this pericope. In this gospel, the victorious Savior King demands a response from us. The victorious Savior King demands a response from you. The fact that Jesus triumphantly entered into Jerusalem to die and to rise and to ascend for us demands a response from us. And that's the big idea I want us to consider this morning from this text. The victorious Savior King demands your response. Victorious Savior King demands your response. So I want us to consider three ways our victorious Savior King was responded to at the triumphal entry and consider how we should respond to this same Christ today, and I want to deposit these this morning in the form of questions so we can kind of get right to the applicational point for us as we work through it.

Speaker 1: 12:30

First, will you celebrate the Savior King like those in verses 12 through 16? Second, will you promote the Savior King, like those in verses 17 through 18. And finally, will you be threatened by the Savior King Like those in verse 19. Let's consider these one by one. Will you first celebrate the saving King, like the crowd gathering in Jerusalem for the Passover feast? Will you join in the celebration that the Savior King has arrived victoriously? Look at verse 12.

Speaker 1: 13:08

The next day, the large crowd here's what we're looking at the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. So how do they respond? They took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out. We're told that the crowd gathering in Jerusalem for the Passover feast catches word that Jesus is going to be there. We'll find out later in verse 18 how they found out, but I'm going to save that for later. But now it's good to know that this crowd, who had heard about the reputation of Jesus, who heard about his miraculous signs, who heard about all that he was doing and all that he was teaching.

Speaker 1: 14:00

They find out that he's coming to, and they don't want to miss an opportunity to see him. But by this time, as we've gotten to the end of three and a half years of Christ's public ministry, there's an opinion that has formed he is him. And so what do they do when they hear that he's coming? They prepare to not protest his arrival but to celebrate his arrival. And we find out why they're so eager to celebrate his arrival by what they do and what they say. First, here's what they do they grab a bunch of palm branches and they start waving them in the air, waving like they just don't care. Why do they do that? Simply put, palm branches were symbolic of victory, triumph, and for the Jewish people it was a symbol, a very, very pertinent symbol of Jewish nationalism. It's like waving a flag, if you will. You see, in the ancient Jewish culture, palm branches were associated with celebrating military victories, and especially the king or the leader who was responsible for leading them into that military victory. There's a cultural connection to this, something that happened 150 years earlier than this moment.

Speaker 1: 15:27

A couple Sundays ago, I talked about that intertestamental period when there was the Maccabean revolt, and during that time there was a great victory, a great victory of God's people through the heroic efforts of the Maccabean warriors led by Judas Maccabeus and his brothers. And when they won the victory over Antiochus, epiphanes IV and God's people had been preserved and the temple was rededicated. There was a great celebration. And guess how they celebrated? Let me give you a quotation from a historical narrative that describes it. This is not from the Bible, this is from the Apocrypha. I treat this type of text like history. That's helpful history. And this is what was said about the moment when they celebrated this victory. Listen in 1 Maccabees 13.51,.

Speaker 1: 16:20

On the 23rd day of the second month in the 171st year, the Jews entered Jerusalem with praise and palm branches and with harps and cymbals and stringed instruments and with hymns and songs, because a great enemy had been crushed and removed from Israel. So we have a picture here of, we have a picture of a victory parade, we have a picture of a victory celebration, and part of the accoutrements, if you will, of this type of a victory parade, were waving palm branches in the air. Think of palm branches like a flag or like confetti or like fireworks. This was the physical symbol of celebration that a great enemy like the Kansas City Chiefs had been defeated. I got some of that confetti right here in my phone from the. This is me waving my palm branch right To a certain degree. I'm kind of being trite, but also kind of that's what's going on here. They're celebrating A great victory has been won.

Speaker 1: 17:30

So when this crowd in verses 12 through 14 grab their palm branches and start waving them in the air as Jesus enters into Jerusalem, what are they doing? They are celebrating a victorious king who has come to crush an enemy and to lead his people into the relief that comes from that victory. That's what's happening here. Now that gesture with the palm branches. Combined with what they say, this even becomes more clear what's going on here. Look at verse 13. They shout out Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the king of Israel.

Speaker 1: 18:20

You're probably familiar with this. This is an exact quotation from Psalm 118, verses 25 and 26. It's a Messianic psalm, meaning it's a song that sings about Israel's longing and anticipation for the Messianic king to come and to lead his people into peace. And so the word Hosanna here beautiful word, I wish we used it more in our songs. Hosanna means save us, we pray, save us, we pray. We need the Lord, who is the King of all. We need the Messiah to come and save us.

Speaker 1: 19:02

Now you know this as well as I do, as we've been working through john's gospel, as we're familiar with with the jews of jesus day, that there were, there was undoubtedly some misguided expectations of what the messianic king really came to save them from. Undoubtedly there was mixed in all of this, this, this longing for the messiah to come and deliver them from who? From Roman oppression. Right, I'm sure there are some misguided expectations here, but we're going to see in a moment how Jesus responds to them. But the most important thing here is that they are for sure, celebrating this, that they believe that Jesus is the long-awaited messianic Savior, king who was there to save them, even if they were misinformed, even if their expectations were not all completely in line with exactly what Jesus was coming to accomplish. Even the disciples in verse 16 were told they didn't even understand it all until after it had happened and these are his closest followers they were essentially correct. Jesus was him. Jesus is the messianic savior king who has come in the name of the Lord to bring a victory. And so for them, this is a moment to celebrate.

Speaker 1: 20:33

Now, notice how Jesus doesn't correct their misunderstandings and their misconceptions and maybe their misplaced expectations. Jesus not only doesn't suppress their celebration, I would say he embraces it and adds fuel to the celebratory fire. What does he do? Look at verse 14. And Jesus found a donkey and sat on it. Why he was agreeing with them. You say I'm the one who has come in the name of the Lord. You say I'm the messianic king. I am. What does he do? He grabs a donkey and sits on it and rides into Jerusalem in fulfillment of a very well-known prophecy in Zechariah 9.

Speaker 1: 21:29

So other gospels give more detail about the procurement of this donkey, but here's all John wants us to know. John wants us to know that it was Jesus' idea to get the donkey. It was Jesus' idea to get the donkey and enter in Jerusalem in a way that pointed to the fact that he was the fulfillment of messianic hope, that he was indeed the messianic savior king. It's almost like he's saying some people would say and if this has been your thought, I understand we've probably heard a lot of teaching on this that he rode on a donkey to show that he was humble. No, he didn't. Jesus was humble, but this is not an expression of humility. It's also not pride. It's an expression of accuracy. Who rode on donkeys throughout Israel's history? Kings did, royals were paraded through the streets at appropriate times. And here's Jesus saying yes, I am the king, you're right, I am here in the name of the Lord and I will save you. Fear not.

Speaker 1: 22:51

So Jesus affirms their celebration and adds to the euphoria by giving yet more cause for jubilation. Can you see that? So here's my question for you Is this how you respond to your Savior King Do you worshipfully here's the word celebrate Jesus? I'm not asking if you revere him. I'm not asking if you trust him. I'm not asking if you love him. I'm asking do you celebrate him? Do you celebrate him?

Speaker 1: 23:30

I think it's important to note that this kind of celebration that's being expressed by the crowd here is not driven by having an outgoing personality or by emotional manipulation, or even by the psychology of crowd dynamic. I believe that what energizes this kind of celebratory response to Jesus is something simple it's faith, it's faith. This is part of faith. It's faith. It's faith, this is part of faith, faith that believes that Jesus truly is the one who came in the name of the Lord to save us, to save you, and being saved is something worth celebrating. If you celebrate his saving first, it's because you have been honest about needing to be saved. You were lost in your sins, broken by the effects of the curse in so many ways in true need of rescue. When desperate people are rescued, they are not reserved. They celebrate that they didn't die, that they're alive. If they're alive, I think our worship of Jesus would be more like the response of this crowd to the saving king's entrance into Jerusalem if we truly believed that we desperately needed him to save us.

Speaker 1: 25:06

To the degree we are aware that we needed saving will be to the degree that we express how glad it is to be saved. We are to be saved. We really needed him, didn't we? We really needed Jesus to come and save us. We really needed Jesus to come and live for us and to be our righteousness, because there was no way in the world we could keep God's moral and ethical standards for life. We needed Jesus to come and be our righteousness, didn't we? We needed Jesus to really die for us to be our forgiveness and deliverance from sin and death and hell. We really needed forgiveness. We really needed him to rise for us and to free us from the fear of death and to know that when life on this earth is over, we will be raised with him to eternal life. We really needed him to rise for us and we really needed him to ascend for us and to reign at the right hand of God so that we can thrive and flourish as God's children under his kingly rule until he returns and makes all things new. We really needed Jesus to do all that, didn't we? And he did it. Church, he did it. We really needed him to do it and he did. And so here we have him, riding into Jerusalem on that donkey to secure the victory for us, his church, now and forever. Is that not the best news ever? We call it the gospel.

Speaker 1: 26:49

So how do we respond to this good news? How do we respond to his victory? How do we respond to our forgiveness? How do we respond to the covering of our shame and the removal of our guilt and deliverance from the fiery judgment of God in that awful place called hell? How do we respond to knowing that the moment we draw our last breath on this earth, our eyes will see the king. How do we respond to all of that? We celebrate, we celebrate, we celebrate. Now, listen, celebration isn't the only mood of worship, but church it is a mood of worship. It's not the only manner in which we respond to God, but church it is a manner in which we respond to God. And I want to encourage us. The liturgy is so well planned out here at Redeemer. I love it.

Speaker 1: 27:41

So, after we confess our sins, after we receive assurance of our pardon in Christ, you know what time it is. It's time to celebrate with thanksgiving and renewed joy that in Jesus we have been saved. Will you join the crowd in celebrating our victorious saving king? And that leads to the next response Will you promote the saving king? Oh, this is a beautiful detail in the text that can easily be overlooked. Like the crowd that witnessed him raise Lazarus from the dead, will you be a witness for the king?

Speaker 1: 28:38

Look at verse 17 and verse 18. The crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to bear Verse 18, the reason why the crowd different crowd went to meet him was that they heard he had done this sign. Here's what's happening here. The first thing you need to notice is that we have two different crowds being referenced here in verses 17 and 18. Here in verses 17 and 18. There's the crowd in verse 17 who are the people who are with Jesus in Bethany, with Mary and Martha, when Lazarus was raised from the dead, and they were eyewitnesses of the life-giving power of Jesus In verse 18,. This is the crowd that we were introduced to in verse 12. The crowd of pilgrims who had come and gathered in Jerusalem for the feast, the Passover feast, and these are the people who were waving the palm branches and singing Hosanna. Notice the relationship that John wants us to see between these two crowds.

Speaker 1: 29:52

The crowd in verse 17 witnesses about Jesus to the people who formed the celebrating crowd in verse 18. It's like they went on ahead. Jesus said I'm going to Jerusalem and they like sped off from Bethany before Jesus could get there and told people. This is how they found out Jesus is coming and you're not going to believe what he did back in Bethany. Lazarus was dead. He was in the tomb, wrapped up, he stinketh and Jesus said Lazarus come forth and guess what happened? He came forth. Who can do that? Who can do that, jesus? And so they go down to Jerusalem and they're like, oh, you got, he's coming. And then they get ready to celebrate his coming. We're told this verse 18,.

Speaker 1: 30:52

The reason the crowd went to meet him was that they'd heard that he had done this sign. Who had they heard it? From? The people that ran down from Bethany, the people who encountered the life-giving power of Jesus, of Jesus. These people are promoting the good news about Jesus by sharing it with others that needed to know. This is how they are responding to the coming victory of the Savior King. They can't keep the good news to themselves. They have to tell others. He's here, he's come. The one we've been waiting for has arrived. Come and see for yourselves. Listen. Church people who have truly encountered Jesus, the saving king, want others to encounter Jesus, the saving king, to encounter Jesus, the saving king. Is this how you respond to the life-giving power of the saving king? Is there a sense in which you just can't keep the good news of Jesus to yourself, like this crowd?

Speaker 1: 32:13

I assume, from what I know of the people who are in this room. I assume from what I know of the people who are in this room, we have encountered a life-changing grace of Jesus. We've experienced the greatest human miracle that happens on the face of this earth on any given day regeneration, the new birth. Our hearts, which were dead in sin, were made alive. New birth, our hearts, which were dead in sin, were made alive, and we saw Jesus and we trusted him and the victorious accomplishments of his life death and resurrection.

Speaker 1: 32:43

And isn't this the case? Since we've come to Jesus, since our hearts have been made alive, our lives have never been the same. Are they easy? No, do we suffer? Yes. Are we living in a wilderness on our way to the new heavens and new earth, the eschatological promised land? Yes. Do we often find ourselves in need? Yes, but do we have life? And does not the good shepherd give us every single thing we actually need, even if we don't have every actual thing we want? The answer is yes. He does.

Speaker 1: 33:38

And church, we are his witnesses. We've experienced the life-giving power of Jesus, who brings one from death to life, from condemnation to justification or from condemnation to forgiveness. And here's what we do we tell people about it, we promote the life-giving power of Jesus. I had to ask myself this question as I was preparing this sermon this week, and so I ask you, as one who's already asked himself when is the last time you shared your story of how the victorious king saved your soul? Do the people in this church community even know how you came to faith in Jesus? Does your small group, your co-workers, your neighbors to your coworkers, to your neighbors, to your friends? How will Union City become more aware of the life-saving power of King Jesus? Here's how they need to hear it from us. We are his witnesses. The victorious saving king demands a response, and may we join the crowd in promoting the good news of the Savior King by actively witnessing to his life-giving power.

Speaker 1: 35:06

And may I just give a pastoral aside here. We are about to enter into a season in our culture where people are more open than usual to conversations about Jesus. Even if they're not interested because they're eager to believe, they're interested because they're eager to find out why you do what you do. It's Easter season, holy Week is upon us. We have traditions, we do things that the culture is very aware of. Don wouldn't don't be surprised to understand that there are people in your life that want to know why. And there are even people in your life co-workers, friends, family members, neighbors who would be willing to accept an invitation to come and see you celebrate it when we gather for worship on Easter Sunday. This isn't the only way in which we witness to the life-saving power of Jesus, but it's a way.

Speaker 1: 36:06

Finally, what's the final response I want to draw your attention to here in closing, and this is a warning? Will you be threatened by the saving King? Will you celebrate Him? Will you celebrate him? Will you promote him, or will you be threatened by him? Look at verse 19. So the Pharisees said to one another you see that you are gaining nothing. Look, the world has gone after him. Now, pastor Ricky, lord willing, we'll be getting into this whole concept of the world going after him next week, and I'm being very careful not to steal sermon away from another preacher. But the Greeks are going to come to Jesus and say we want to see Jesus. You just kind of see this all happening back in chapter four with the woman at the well, the Samaritan woman. You see it more coming to focus here in chapter 12, verses 20 and forward. They see all these people from all different places, not just Jews coming to Jesus and they're like what is going on here? The world is going after him.

Speaker 1: 37:24

It's important to note here that this expression, this response from the Pharisees, is more than just simple rejection. I mean, we've been bumping up against that all throughout this gospel. We've been seeing the rejection accumulated, with their conspiring with the chief priests in the previous chapter to murder him. But here we get a little bit more insight into why they reject him. They see Jesus as a threat.

Speaker 1: 37:52

Pastor Royce pointed out last week that in John 11, the Pharisees saw Jesus' gaining popularity and followership as a threat to their power and their place among the people. They cherished this. They cherished and deeply valued their power and their place and their influence. They loved being at the top of the religious hierarchy. They loved making their lists of do's and don'ts and watching the people cower before them in spiritual fear and submission. They loved being at the top of the system. And here's what they're doing. They are seeing that power and that influence slip away as more and more people follow Jesus, away as more and more people follow Jesus.

Speaker 1: 38:45

They see the triumphal entry as a little hyperbole here, but they see it, they feel it, they're sensing it. The world's going after him, implied and leaving us. So here they are once again, seeing Jesus as a threat to their power and place. They see the things that matter most to them slipping out of their hands. They see the crowd celebrating and promoting jesus and john tells us as if they are gaining nothing. Gaining nothing what's the op? What's another way to say that they're losing? Gaining nothing. Gaining nothing. What's another way to say that they're losing? We're losing because of Jesus.

Speaker 1: 39:36

So they saw people turning to Jesus as a personal and collective loss in relationship to what mattered most to them. They saw people celebrating and promoting Jesus as a threat to their gain or not gaining anymore. What a dark and deadly response to the Savior King, but church. They couldn't have been more wrong. They couldn't have been more wrong. Jesus wasn't entering into Jerusalem for them to lose anything truly valuable. Jesus was entering into Jerusalem so that they would gain the most valuable thing in the world their relationship with God restored and eternal life. He was entering into Jerusalem to be glorified and, through his eternal, his atoning death and victorious resurrection, all who would believe in him would gain eternal life. What profits to the man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul. Jesus has come to Jerusalem to give their soul back, to give them what matters most.

Speaker 1: 40:45

This is still the lie that the evil one peddles to those who refuse to follow Jesus and deny the truth claims of the Christian faith. The lie is if you come to Jesus, you lose. If you become a Christian, you're're giving up. You lose your personal freedom, you lose your self-determination, you lose your autonomy. To put it crudely, you lose the fun of getting to do what you want when you want, however you want. But here's the reality Getting what we want when we want, how we want, is the reason why the world is as messy as it is.

Speaker 1: 41:25

Going our own way has gotten us and our whole world into this broken mess since the fall of mankind in the Garden of Eden, trying to live our lives independent of God, in rebellion to his created design for our lives. Now that's led to loss. We gain nothing but heartache and all sorts of proverbial and eventually literal hell by failing to recognize that we were made to need God, know God, depend upon God, have intimate fellowship with God and to submit our lives to God's plan for our human existence. And so Jesus has come back. Jesus has come to give that back. He's come to give back what was lost in our sinful rebellion. He's come back to give back. He's come to give back what was lost in our sinful rebellion. He's come back to give back what the good life that's experienced under his gracious rule. Jesus is no threat to the good life, jesus is the good life. We'll say later in chapter 14, I am the way, the truth and the life. Jesus is the only way to flourish and thrive in this life and the next.

Speaker 1: 42:53

The Pharisees saw Jesus as a threat to what was most precious to them, but the problem was they had their precious wrong. They're like Gollum, holding onto the ring and holding onto it to his doom. Spoiler alert Gollum absolutely gets obliterated in the fires of Mount Doom with the ring. Why he wouldn't let it go. Here are the Pharisees grabbing on to that which they think is valuable, grabbing on to that which they think they need, and Jesus says let go. I've come to give life and to give it more abundantly.

Speaker 1: 43:40

So Jesus isn't a means of losing. Jesus is a means of gaining everything we were ever meant to have, and more with him forever. And so if the Apostle Paul were speaking on this subject, he'd say something like this I gladly count all things as loss compared to the surpassing value of knowing Christ. Jesus, my Lord. I'll give up anything because Jesus is the treasure that turns all other treasures to trash. I won't say what the actual Greek word means. It's worse than trash. It's the stuff that goes in the toilet. Jesus is a treasure that puts everything else in perspective, and Jesus is saying John wants us to see that the Pharisees were not willing to let go of their mud pies, not recognizing what Jesus was offering to them was the forever feast that we read about in Isaiah, and what Jesus was offering to them was the forever feast that we read about in Isaiah.

Speaker 1: 44:42

Jesus only takes things away that keep us from the good life Our sin, which condemns us, the world's value system which deceives us, and the dominion of the evil, one who enslaves us. Do you see Jesus as a threat to what you value in life? I hope not. If you do, I urge you this morning to let Jesus redefine for you what is truly of worth and value. Let Jesus redefine for you what you need, more than the breath you breathe and the money you make, and the food you eat and the possessions you own. You need God and cannot live without him. Jesus will say later in John 15, for without me you can do nothing. I'm hoping that this morning, if you view Jesus as a threat to your autonomy, a threat to the good life, a threat to what you value most, that this morning the Spirit of God will do for you what he's done for so many of us by his grace. Begin to open our hearts to see that those things were just husks and ashes compared to Jesus. The victorious Savior King demands your response. Don't be threatened by him. Consider all your gain as loss compared to what you gain by turning to him in faith as your Savior King, as your Savior King. So we've considered three ways of responding to our victorious Savior King, as he was responded to here at the triumphal entry. And so, in conclusion, I ask you again like the Palm Branch crowd, will you celebrate the Savior King, like the Bethany crowd who was amazed by the life-giving, resurrecting power of Jesus, will you promote the Savior King and, unlike the Pharisees, will you refuse to be threatened by the Savior King and know that he has your best interests, now and forever, at heart.

Speaker 1: 46:57

When I first became a Christian as a teenager in a small inner city neighborhood church. The liturgy of our small church was very, very simple. They had a Sunday night service and for the first 30 minutes of the service we'd sing hymns out of the hymn book that everyone kind of raised their hand and asked for their favorites. And as a new Christian, I had a go-to number 426. That means nothing to you. I don a go-to Number. 426. That means nothing to you. I don't know why I still remember that number. I'm kind of wired that way. 426. Victory in Jesus.

Speaker 1: 47:31

I just could not. First of all, I'm from Philly and so like that Southern gospel twang just kind of like made me feel like I could do this in church a little bit, and it wasn't kind of the norm in that church but it kind of. If anyone gave me a problem I said, well, the music just kind of makes you do that right. But as a young Christian I just couldn't get over the fact that this was real and this was secure, that Jesus actually accomplished this. I didn't have to wait to the end to see how it would all work out. Jesus had already secured the victory that my sins were forgiven, my soul was saved and one day, where he is, I will be forever. Not because I deserve it, but because he, in his love, gave his life for me. That is good news and it is worth singing. So as I was preparing this sermon on Christ's victorious entry into Jerusalem, I just kept singing that song over and over again. And we're going to sing it this morning. Now, when I asked Ricky if we could sing it, I admitted that it wasn't really kind of like in the style and the mood of the communion song, but I think these words are fitting to celebrate with the crowd how good it is to be the recipients of Christ's victorious life.

Speaker 1: 48:57

Death and resurrection. Oh, victory in Jesus, our Savior forever. Let's not be threatened by him. Let's put all of our trust in the triumphant accomplishments of his life, death and resurrection and church. May we celebrate and promote him all the days of our lives. Amen, let's pray, god Almighty.

Speaker 1: 49:22

We thank you that there is victory in Jesus, our Savior forever. We thank you that he marched into Jerusalem knowing exactly what he was doing. He would lay down his life for us, and we needed him to do it. We needed him to die for us, father. We needed him to rise for us, father. And so we thank you, jesus, for your willingness to lay down your life on our behalf, to endure the suffering, to despise the shame, to go through all you went through in that week in Jerusalem and to triumphantly rise and ascend as our victorious Savior King.

Speaker 1: 50:07

And so I pray, god, that by your grace and for your glory, we would respond to that victory like the crowd, that we'd celebrate it, and I pray that we'd respond to it like the crowd, we'd promote it and tell others, as we are able, that there's no one like Jesus. And forgive us, lord, for the pharisaical voice we may hear from time to time. Still, even as your children, that isn't worth it. Is Jesus a threat? Does he take more than he gives? Help us to not believe that your son is a threat, but help us to believe that we should count all things as loss compared to the surpassing value of knowing him now and forever. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.