Hosanna! Save Us!

Today is Palm Sunday, and we are celebrating this day that Jesus wrote in and people cheered, save us. And it's perfect because we are in the Book of Mark and we are looking at a passage where Jesus tells us what it's going to look like to actually save us. And so we're going to look quick here. Just open our Bibles and dig in a little bit before, though, just so you know, there are clipboards. Again, like Sadie said, if people want clipboards. There's also a hallway with tables. Please feel free. In a gym, if you need to step out there, you should still be able to hear things. If you're a parent and you just like, it'd be nice to sit at a table or walk around, feel free to do that. I know on a fifth Sunday, it's a little different. This week I got the opportunity, speaking of save us, to see a movie that kind of. Everyone's talking about Project Hail Marionite. I don't often get to go with movies, but thankfully, I have Stephen to encourage me to see movies in the theater when I should see them in the theater. Hey, we're twins today, Stephen. We're twinsies. And Stephen said, you wanna see this one in the theater? And so. And I am glad I went with a group of guys, and, man, it was beautiful and awesome. I love a good film anyway, in the theater. But this movie, the whole time I'm watching it, that morning I had been reading Mark and I had been reading about Palm Sunday. And this idea of, like, what does it look like to people who cry out for God to save us? And what does that really look like? What are we actually asking for? And this movie asks this question over and over. Is a movie, a story about people who are trying to save the world, the universe, really. And they actually. There's a moment in it where Ryan Gosling, his character, and this his sidekick, who is an alien rock man called Rocky, as they talk to her, says, grace Rocky saves stars. They kind of talk this way as they learn a language. This is, like, really essentially the movie, or if you read the book, Grace Rocky. Grace is the name of the character here. So Grace Rocky saves stars. This is their hope in all that they're doing is Grace Rock. You save stars. It's a movie that you're sitting in the theater with people and every time they talk about, we're going to save everyone, you can feel in the room, there's something like in us that's like, deep at our core. Love the story of people rescuing people. Love the story of people being rescued, being saved, when it seems like there's no hope, when it seems like something has come from outside of us that, like, we can't stop. And it seems like there's no way that there's this amazing, beautiful feeling you get when you go, oh, it's going to work somehow they're going to be rescued. Which I think is because we're built for that, because that is the foundation of who we are. This is what the story of Scripture tells us, is why when we read Scripture and it swells up in us and changes us. And so a movie like this isn't that. Oh, Scripture is. It's like Scripture is like Project Hail Mary. It's because Project Hail Mary is another story that is a lot like the story of our lives and all of history when we are crying out for someone to save us. It's beautiful and it's true to us. And it's not just true in a book or in a movie I get to see. And I just go home and think about. It's very true in my life that I then get home and I lay my head on my pillow and I say, lord, save me, rescue me from a list of things. And in that day, many, many years ago, people stood outside the city of Jerusalem as Jesus entered on a donkey and waved palm branches and said, save us. Hosanna. Save us. Save us. Better. King. King. That's better than King David. You've come to save us. I don't know if they knew actually what they were saying, but they were saying, come save us. And that's what we're going to look at today in the Book of Mark. So we're in the Book of Mark. We've been there for a while, and we'll be there for a little while. Today we're kind of right in the middle of Mark, and we'll talk about that. We're right in this middle section that's going to now turn Mark towards this. We've understood who Jesus is kind of a lot of his identity. Now it's going to turn to what does it look like, what he actually is going to do to make that happen. So if you want to turn the book, we're at the end of eight and one, verse of nine. So we're just stepping into nine here. Before we hit Easter next week, here's our little timeline we've been on recently. We saw Jesus feed these empty boxes, or when he fed all those people and talked to the Pharisees. Then he got in the boat with the disciples room. Just recently, just in the last weeks, there's no. It says there's no bread, but there's the loaf. The bread of life is with them in the boat and they're worried about not having bread. And he says, you're not seeing it, you're not seeing clearly. And then he heals a blind man. This is where we're gonna pick up today. He heals this blind man. And then Peter, it seems as if does understand who Jesus is. Then he talks about his resurrection. And next week we'll get the transfiguration as we head into Easter. But this is where we're gonna pick up today. We're picking up in this story that we read last week. But today we're gonna even get more into this story. So we're in Mark. We just, we're just gonna walk through these stories today together and unpack them a little bit. This is Mark 8. There's gonna be a bunch of Mark. So I'll just read these with us and unpack them. This is the story now. The disciples just had been with Jesus in a boat and he said, you're not seeing, you're not hearing it. Your hearts are hard, you're missing it, you're missing it. You're worried about the bread that you don't have. And you have the bread of life right in front of you. Then they came to Bethsaida and some people brought him a blind man and begged him to touch him. And he took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village. And when he had spit on his eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked him, do you see anything? And he looked up and said, I see people, but they look like trees walking. Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again and he opened his eyes and his sight was restored and he saw everything clearly. And he sent him to his house saying, do not even enter the village. We get this picture now remember in Mark we see a lot of these sandwiches where we see something that is true, that we see Jesus doing. And the story sort of resolves more. But in between we get a picture. And often we get kind of an acted out picture of a reality. It's like a play that gives us a true reality of what's happening. And I think that's what Mark is doing here. He's giving us a picture of a blind man who gets brought and he sees some, but not totally clearly, a foggy scene. He sees people who look like trees walking. And he Goes, okay. And then he gives them, like, truly clear sight. I think this is really kind of the center of the Book of Mark. And so this feels like Mark is saying, okay, the disciples are going to kind of see. They kind of see who Jesus is. And now as we go through Mark, they're going to really clearly see who Jesus is. And we know this because of what happens next. What I'm saying is, because of what happens next. Next. Let's see what happens next. So they're just on the boat. Their hearts are hardened. Jesus says, you're not seeing it. Then he tells this story about this or that. It's not a story, but this happens with this blind man. And then we go back to the disciples and Jesus hanging out. And Jesus went on with his disciples to the village of Caesarea, Philippi. And on the way, he asked disciples. So on the way to this village, he says to them, who do people say that I am? This is Jesus to his disciples. And they told him, john the Baptist. And others say, Elijah, others, one of the prophets. They say, all these different great prophets, Jesus, they say, you're all these people. But then he says, yeah, but who do you say I am? Like, not. What do they say? Who do you think I am? And Peter says, you are the Christ, the Messiah. And he strictly charged them to tell no one about him. It seems like a moment where there's a revelation, where it goes, oh, Peter's getting it. He sees it. Maybe he's starting to see clearly. This is cool. This is really exciting in the Book of Mark, because you go, the disciples maybe have moved away from just having hardened hearts. They're starting to actually get what is going on. But that isn't the end of that moment. He began to teach them that the Son of Man. So now Jesus is going to directly teach them, it's not a parable. He's going to say, I am the Christ. And here's what's going to happen. He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days, rise again. He explains what's going to happen when we celebrate this week, right? Good Friday and Easter. And he said this plainly. So Mark even tells us he says this in a way they understand. He's not saying, like, as a parable. They should be able to understand this. And we heard Peter just say, you're the Christ. And you'd think Peter would go, that's incredible. You'd be willing to do that for us. Jesus And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. Jesus says, you're the Christ. You're the Messiah. Jesus says, who am I? You're the Christ. I must suffer, die, and I'm going to rise from the dead. And Jesus says, hey, come here. No, you're not going to do that. See, it's like, do you see here? He's not. It's like he's seeing a tree that's walking. There's still a fuzziness. I get who you are, Jesus. But he doesn't maybe get what he has to do to actually rescue them, to actually save them, to actually be the Messiah, the anointed one. He probably thinks what everybody probably thinks, like he's going to come and be a great king, the best king of the kings. He's going to maybe rule that area. He's going to pull them out of oppression. He's going to be a great political leader. He's going to be a great religious leader. This is like maybe just so far out, even what you can imagine. And he says, the word rebuke is strong. Peter now rebukes Jesus. But turning and seeing his disciples, Jesus now rebukes Peter. And what does he say? He doesn't say, oh, you don't understand. He says, get behind me, Satan, for you're not setting your mind on things of God, but on things of man. So I think Peter correctly identifies Jesus as the Christ, sees him as savior, Messiah, but he misses the actual work that has to be done. And when Jesus says, I'm gonna have to die, but then I'm gonna rise, he goes, there's no way. That's not what a king. A king doesn't come into town and then die at the hands of the leaders. He overthrows the leaders. He becomes in power, he pushes them out, or we get to be in charge now. And so he sees him maybe as a leader, but not the one who rescues in this way. And Jesus gets it right. He says, you don't understand it. And Jesus feels so strongly about this that he doesn't just say, you're not getting it, but he calls Peter Satan. This is a big deal. I think there's a reason why Jesus tells him this. He doesn't just say, peter, you're not getting it. He says, this is a very serious thing for you to say. No to me. Dying and raising from the dead means there is no rescue, there is no saving. And actually, when he says this, it might as you're Reading Mark. If you'd been reading Mark all in like one sitting, maybe sat down and we got to read Mark in the little bit of time it would take, you might have remembered that just a little while ago we read a story about Satan actually with Jesus and what was Satan trying to do? We read the story and in the gospels of Satan tries to come to Jesus and say, you should have power without the dying and the rising part. I'll give you power over all these people. You can be a great king over all these people. You should turn this, remember this stone into a bread. You should show off your power. You should do everything except the actual plan to come die and rise to suffer, be the suffering servant. Because Satan knows that that plan was. Will take care of him than sin and restore everything and save all people, right? I think in that moment Jesus goes, peter, what you're saying for me not to do is exactly what Satan was trying to do is say, jesus, there's another way. You don't have to die. Let's just put you into power. It's the same thing that we've seen over and over and over in scripture. Satan has this good, sneaky way, not good, but sneaky way of saying, of not just directly going like, I'm creepy and don't do stuff, but he goes, hey, you could still have that, but maybe a different way. Maybe the way of like, you do everything and it's all about you and you take the power and maybe it's less about God and his holiness and his throne all the way back to Genesis, right? It's you're in the garden with God and maybe God's lying to you. Maybe he doesn't have your best. Maybe you could do this without him and take that fruit. You don't need God. And so in the moment, Peter says to Jesus, this dying and rising, no Jesus. And Jesus goes, you are just like Satan has always done, trying to stop the work of God and the saving work of God. So I think we see a moment here where Peter is this blind man and this story hasn't finished yet. For Peter, we hear this. You're the Christ. And Jesus says, I must suffer and die. And he says, no. And he says, get behind me, Satan. Because he's going, I think you're seeing trees walking and you're not fully seeing clearly. You know what? It's not. Peter won't see clearly until the day when Jesus raises from the dead and walks, walks back into his presence. And then Peter goes, oh. And then the Holy Spirit Comes and Peter preaches a sermon and thousands of people come to faith. And then Peter is willing to give his life over and over for it. Peter's willing to be bold. Where these leaders who killed Jesus say, you need to stop talking about Jesus or we're going to kill you too. And he says, okay. And then he prays for boldness to talk about Jesus. He's a changed person, but he doesn't see that clearly and hasn't changed until he sees all of that. We get to see all that now. Right. But the time, he's in the middle of that. Right. And so he sees just this part of this moment. And I think this is what Mark is helping us see here. He's seeing this. Jesus isn't just. It's not just about. Yeah, I think Jesus might be the anointed one, the Messiah, but also he is the Savior who came to die and rise. The. The dying and rising is critical to this mission, to the story, to what we believe about who Jesus is. It reminds me of when we do baptisms here at Hope. This is all we ask people when we say, they're like, I'd like to get baptized. Cause I wanna proclaim publicly that I follow Jesus. I'm gonna do this thing that's in scripture where people go underwater and come up. It's this symbol of dying and rising with Jesus. And. And we say. We have two questions for you then. Do you believe Jesus is your Savior? Do you believe he came, died and rose so that you could be rescued? Yes. Do you believe he is also your Lord? He's your king. Like, he also is the one who decides how you live, who knows more, who's right and true and good. So is he your Lord and Savior? Right. It's the combo of those. I think sometimes we. One of those. Yes. Yeah. I think he's God. I think he's good. I think he's really wise. I love his teachings. I don't know, though, about the dying and rising part. That's okay, then. Let's maybe not get dunked. I do like that he died and rose for me and that my sins are forgiven. But I don't like the part where, like, he gets to have authority in my life. That's okay, then let's not dunk you. Let's wait. Because this is the fullness of him. This is the scene, clearly, of knowing him. Also, it doesn't end here. I love this that Jesus doesn't end. Mark doesn't end this year. And we don't. We get more of this conversation. It's not just you're the Christ I'm going to suffer. No, don't suffer. Get behind me, Satan. But then Jesus says, actually, if you're going to follow me, this is also your life. That you not only will take on the identity of a follower of Christ, of a son or daughter of God, of a beloved one, but you also get to take on the identity of someone who also gets to suffer and die and rise. And so he continues and calling the crowd to him. Now he gathers more. He says to them, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it. And whoever loses his life for my sake, and the Gospels will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation of him, will the Son of man also be ashamed when he comes in glory of his Father with the holy angels? And he said to them, truly I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God after it has come with power. Let me start at the end there. This last part, this is actually from Mark 9. I'm not sure why we divided that way in Mark, but he's saying there's some of you who will actually see the kingdom of God come with power. Generally there's different interpretations that generally though, that I think that's him saying, like some of you are going to see the kingdom of God come in all of its power. So we're going to see this happen. You're going to see God himself on a cross in the ground and then resurrect from the dead. You're going to see this, you're going to see clearly before you die. It's going to happen. I don't think they realize even how soon it's going to happen. Before this though, he says, not only is my life one, that is a life of suffering and death and resurrection, but actually, if you follow me, that is your life too. You're called actually to set aside your own life. And actually setting aside your life, dying to yourself actually is what brings you life. And actually trying to hold on to your own life and your stuff is actually what brings you death. It seems counter, it's actually a very foundational part of being a follower of Jesus that we set aside our life and actually, we know if you read like you think, if you read through Ephesians, start reading Ephesians 1 and especially Ephesians 2, Ephesians 2, we learn that our lives that we're holding on to are actually deathly lives. We're holding onto corpses. And so if you think of that way, you think, wow, would I want to hold onto this corpse, this dead life? I want to let go of that and hold on to a live life. It makes me think of this story I've heard, which I looked at. I guess it's true. But the story that this issue that monkeys have, right? So there's this thing where, like, if someone were to put bananas or whatever monkeys eat, right in a hole in a tree, a monkey will grab those bananas and hold onto them. And then they can't get the bananas out of the tree because they're holding onto the bananas, but they want the bananas. So it's this, like, tug of war to get to the bananas out of the tree. But you can't, because you're holding onto them. And if you let go of them and you can't, you. Right, it's this, like, terrible trap. And they say people use it to trap monkeys. They, like, trap them by having them stick their hand. And really, in order to get it, you just have to let go of it and get your. Pull the banana out, right? But you so want it. So you hold onto it. Cause you want it, but you actually never get it. Cause you're holding onto it. It's how many. If you took two seconds of it, said, everyone stop for a moment. Write down where you see that happening. You're like, I'm holding on as tight as I can because I walked so bad. And it's not actually getting you what you want, but you're still holding on. It's all over the place. If we had to make a list, right? A lot of bananas I'm trying to get, and I'm not getting them because I'm holding on. That's a general principle, I think, because it's a very true thing in life. And Jesus is just saying, this is true cosmically, eternally. You lay down your life to pick up my life, and that actually is everything that you've desired. And so we see Peter here doing a very similar thing. I think the people on Palm Sunday, which wasn't called Palm Sunday, but the people there as he entered Jerusalem do. They're yelling, save us. Save us. I don't know if they even know what they're really Yelling they want to be saved. But I think they're yelling the same thing. Peter would be yelling, save us. Be the king, Come into town and overthrow, or build a castle and make us your kingdom. We're so sick of this. Save us. They don't know. They're saying, save us. Go and die and rise from the dead. And then we too will give our lives so we can follow you and be alive. I think I can put myself in that place. I often ask to be saved, and I'm really asking Jesus just to save me to my hopes and dreams. Save me so that I can be comfortable, I can be loved more, I can have this thing or my plans will happen. And Jesus comes and says, I'm not saving you for your plans. I'm saving him to, to bring you to me. I was, I was thinking this week, what are some of the ways, some of the things I like to hold on to and not let go of that I'm really asking him to save me from? And he's saying, I need you to actually die to those so that you actually can be rescued. One of the things I like to hold tightly to is control my plans, outcomes of things. If I just hold on tight enough to these things, then like in, like a calendar or a list, or if I can, like control a person enough, then, like, everything will be okay. It's Jesus, save me, please. Please save me from this chaos and just make things under control. If I grip enough, and actually often that grip just becomes more anxiety, more exhausted, strained relationship, actually can let go and trust God. I can, like, actually die to myself in that and trust God in that. Trust that actually he is not just in control, but he's sovereign, he's good. He knows. He knows he has a way better plan, which I know just from those one moment in history that he knew how to come and rescue us from sin and death, which I did not know. Or maybe I'm holding on very tightly just to comfort in my life. I go, save me from discomfort, Lord, save me from discomfort. I think he's trying to do that usually. So I avoid hard conversations, I avoid risk. I just am obedient so that nothing bad will happen. Life can become very small and safe and empty, stagnant relationally. I can become real small because anytime someone bothers me or is hard to be around or is a little annoying or doesn't do the thing I need them to do or isn't helping me, then I. I have to let that person go because really lonely, actually. So I'M holding onto comfort. It's actually not bringing me life like I thought. And so I had to die to myself. And I had to trust Jesus to be my comfort. And in that, I actually have life. I actually gain life. I actually gives me the opportunity to be with people who are uncomfortable and still have great joy. I hold onto approval all the time, wanting to be liked, respected, affirmed in the way I say things and do things, the choices I make. Lord, save me from being not approved, from disapproval, from not being liked. He says, you're gonna be unliked and it's gonna be okay. Cause I love you deeply. You have the ultimate approval, love beyond love. And so I get to let go of that and see his approval, which then allows me to move into places and be uncomfortable in that and die to myself in that. I love to sometimes hold on to bitterness. And it feels good. It's like, I know I shouldn't, but. Oh, it just feels good. Like you're terrible and wrong and you did this thing, and I'm gonna hold on and hold on and hold on. And somehow that is gonna make it go away or fix the thing that happened, or it's gonna hurt you, right? We all have had to have been, in this moment, holding on to bitterness. It just kills me. It, like, destroys me. Like, it's like it creeps up my arm and into my heart. And instead, I can die to that. And I can accept the forgiveness God has given me. And I can let that change my heart from a stony, bitter heart to a live heart. It's so much dying to myself that brings life, that feels so counterintuitive, especially in a world and in a culture that just says, like, you gotta get it after your thing. You gotta hold onto your thing. And instead, I gotta die to my thing and run after Jesus. Essentially, our call today on Palm Sunday, as we wave our hosanna banners, is Jesus, what are you saving us from? You're ultimately saving us from ourselves. Save us from us, Jesus. And he says, I'm willing to do that. You do not deserve that. In fact, you're the ones who are going to kill me. I don't think Peter knows that yet, but I'm willing to be killed by you, by your sin, take that judgment, be buried in the ground. And I'm going to rise from the dead and defeat that sin and that death. I'm going to kill that shame and that bitterness, that approval that you have to hold on to. And you are going to be given a life that you could not imagine and you're going to be able to suffer and give of yourself because there's a great grand life, a full life in Him. It's incredible. So in Palm Sunday, we get to celebrate that in just a few days. We get to remember our God, who died but rose so that we could have life and he did save us. Just really good news, friends. I'm going to invite our worship team up so we can celebrate that good, good news. A couple things to consider as we move to a time to reflect here. We like to respond to this good news of the gospel, that Christ has come to save us. Some things to consider. Do you know the one who gave his life for our life? That's step one. It's true. Can you say, yes, I want him to be Lord and Savior of my life? Maybe. What is keeping you from laying down your life and picking up Jesus life? What's the barrier there? What's still that thing? Who follows Jesus with you? Or who could you share this good news with? There's a lot of people waiting for this good news every day. I need this good news, so feel free to share it with me. We also love to respond in other ways. We'll sing here in a moment. There's people who'd love to pray for you that'll be in the back of the room with yellow lanyards. Please take them up on that. They love to pray for anything. Or even if you don't want to share anything, they would just love to bless you with a prayer. We love to give in response. It's an opportunity to take what God's given us already that's already his, and give it back to him as a way to support the ministry here at Hope and join us in the ministry we're doing. And also we love to take communion. Our service builds to a point where we get to sing and take communion, which every week we reminded of his death and resurrection and how it has rescued us, has freed us. He's laid down his life and it reminds us that we too get to lay down our lives. And so we do that out in the hallways. Both sides have tables with grape juice and crackers, and we invite everyone who follows Jesus to do that as an opportunity to remember what Jesus has done for us. Encourage you that do that with friends. Also this week, as we're all here, we also have stickers out there, little palm branches and hosannas. So if you have kids who want to go out, maybe they're not taking communion. But if you just want to go take a sticker to just remind you of today and that Jesus has come to save us and even opportunity to pray together as a family. Please do that as well. We love that opportunity to pray with each other. Let me pray for us and we'll continue to worship here together. Lord, thank you for your kindness, your goodness, your love for us that we screamed out save us and you heard it and you responded to it, and you did. We don't even know what to do, and you do. And so thank you that in those moments when we don't even know you do know. I pray we continue to turn to you, turn from ourselves to you, and that you continue to wash over us, your life, and restore us. I pray as we sing these words would be true to us. We love you, Lord. Amen.