The King We Need

Well, good morning, guys.

I am uh sick.

I have like a weird ear uh infection happening in this moment, so bear with me.

And I've had a I've had a tough week.

My family's had a tough week, and some people in this room have had a tough week, so I pray for your grace this morning as uh I try to bring you the gospel in a way that is uh filled with hope and life.

Um what I want to do is I don't know where this is coming from.

My hope is that this morning you can see that Jesus is the king that you really need.

That above all things that this world has to offer, they pale infinitely in comparison to what his kingdom and his ruling reign bring to us as his people.

So we are in the story of Jesus coming into Jerusalem at the time of Passover.

Now, he had just had this big celebration feast uh at Simon the Leper's house, and they were celebrating a couple of things.

One is that uh Lazarus was uh resurrected from the dead, and uh they were uh amazed at this sign, they were they were just uh uh caught in awestruck wonder of the power of Jesus uh to raise Lazarus from the dead, and Jesus had come back into Bethany as um uh he had kind of fled the scene for just a little bit to try and protect and preserve his life in this moment.

His time had not yet come, right?

This is what he said to those who were near him.

And so um he's now leaving Bethany and he's coming into Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover meal.

Now, Passover is one of the three pilgrimage feasts uh that the Israelite nation would observe.

And so people would come from all over the surrounding regions uh to celebrate the Passover in the city of Jerusalem.

And we have to take a moment to try and understand uh the political uh tension that would have been felt in that moment.

You see, they were under the tyranny of Rome.

They were not free citizens.

And in fact, Rome would affect in negative ways uh the freedom and liberty that the Israelite people uh would believe uh the way in which they were called to worship God, to worship him in the temple, to live obediently unto him, to be able to uh be in a place, a land that was given to them by God, right?

So that uh they were able to worship him freely as their people.

This land had been taken from them, and now they're sitting under the oppression and tyranny of the uh Roman Empire, and they're coming here into the capital city of Jerusalem to be able to celebrate this Passover feast.

Now, Jerusalem on a normal uh kind of day would have been about a population of 250,000 people, and so that's about half the size of downtown Cincinnati.

Downtown Cincinnati is somewhere around 500,000 people.

So imagine about half of that, right?

People there in the capital city.

At the time of Passover, it's understood that there would have been somewhere around two and a half million people here in the city to celebrate Passover.

And they say this.

They say that as Jesus was coming into the city, the crowds heard that his arrival was near, and so they rushed to gather to usher him in.

So let's just paint a portrait, a mind picture for just a moment of the mass of this crowd that was coming to usher Jesus into the capital city of Jerusalem.

I mean, it'll be something that we couldn't even.

If you've been to, I've never been to Opening Day, I've heard about this thing called Opening Day.

And I hear there's a lot of people who like flood in to watch the Reds just usher in to the city.

Another season that's mediocre, right?

But uh for some reason, we just love to get down there and like usher these people in.

And so imagine just multitudes and multitudes of people gathering around to usher Jesus into the city.

And it says this that the people started to gather up these palm branches and they started to cry out to Jesus, Hosanna, Hosanna.

Now, if we don't stop for just a moment and really understand what that word means, we're gonna miss what I believe John is giving us these details of the narrative for.

You see, the the proclamation Hosanna means save us now.

Save us now.

Now you have to understand this.

They had just witnessed or observed, many of them had witnessed and observed Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead.

It says in the text that those who saw him raise Lazarus from the dead was circulating this testimony, this eyewitness account of Jesus' miraculous power.

They're here in Jerusalem on this holy day, and there's this cloud that just lingers over them.

And it's the Roman Empire, their authority and their tyranny, right?

It just lingers over these people.

And here comes Jesus into the city, and their cry is what?

Save us now.

What do you think they wanted to be saved from?

Hey, I love it.

Whoever that is, you're wrong, but I love it.

You see, they wanted to be saved from a wicked emperor and a wicked empire.

They wanted to be saved now, to be brought into a kingdom that they had imagined in their minds they should be living in in that moment.

And this really sets the tone for us this morning.

Their cries to save us now were coming from that felt and experienced reality.

They saw Jesus as the King of Israel, who had been sent by God to save them from their current suffering, from their current sorrow, from their current situation of the life that they were living, against the backdrop of the life they desired to live.

You see, they wanted a king who could get them out of their hell of being captive to a foreign gentile ruler.

And they wanted that king to usher them into their heaven of living freely in the land that God had given them and worshiping him at the temple where his presence dwelled.

So at the core of this whole situation, they were ushering Jesus into the city in the hopes that he would usher them into their hoped-for heaven.

A free land where they were a free people and they could freely worship.

It goes on in verse 17 about the crowd who had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb.

He they were circulating the testimony of this story, and it started to really frustrate the Pharisees.

You see, the people who witnessed Lazarus' resurrection, as they were spreading the story throughout the city, uh, John actually communicates that this was the motivating factor that caused the crowds to gather.

They were there because they had heard about this sign that Jesus did, and it caused them to have this hope within them.

Hope that he was the king who was promised to them that would deliver them out from this current hell.

A Gentile ruler ruling over them, oppressing their people, the way of which God had called them to live in the land that he had given them.

And that this king was going to come in and make war and liberate them from this reality.

Now, this crowd gathering created a sense of despair and apathy in the Pharisees' plots to end Jesus' growing fame.

At the side of the crowd, the Pharisees actually said to one another, You see that you are gaining nothing.

Look, the world has gone after him.

Like you can just hear the loss in their voice, right?

That there's no hope to continue down the road that we've been going on.

These plots, these schemes to put an end to this growing fame, it's over.

Look, everyone has gone after him.

You see, they were tempted to believe that their efforts to stop Jesus were vanity.

The crowd of followers was growing while their confidence was quickly shrinking.

Now, verse 20.

Now, among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks.

So these came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, Sir, we wish to see Jesus.

Philip went and told Andrew.

Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus.

John inserts here in the text a very uh what seems like almost a peculiar detail.

We've been studying the book of John for a year and a half now.

And one of the things that we've talked about over and over again is that the intentionality of detail for John was extremely uh purposeful and meaningful to him, because this is what he wanted to do.

He wanted to, at the end of this, have all of his readers believe that Jesus is the Christ whom God has sent into the world to save us from our sin.

So this peculiar detail that seems to be inserted here, right?

Jesus riding in on a donkey, people crying out, Hosanna, uh uh uh then all of a sudden, uh, and there's a couple Greeks here, and they wanted to see Jesus.

They wanted a private meeting with him.

But I think that what John is trying to do is actually point us to the reality of Jesus' coming.

That Jesus wasn't just coming to save the Israelite people from underneath this oppressive tyranny of Rome, but he was going to bring the nations to himself.

And we see evidence right here as he's being ushered into the city that now even these Gentile men are seeking after him.

That Christ was not dying for a geopolitical people group, but that he was dying that every nation, tribe, and tongue would confess him as Lord.

And so we see actually in Acts 10 that there were God-fearing Gentiles who had some reverence for God and his people and his ways, but yet were ignorant to Christ and his finished work.

And so it's likely that these men were part of these God-fearing Gentiles who had a specific reverence for God and his people and his ways, and was coming into the city of Jerusalem to try and participate in certain ways in this feast.

Now, Jesus has just been ushered into the city by a multitude of Jewish pilgrims who are crying out to him, save us now, hailing him as king over all of Israel.

But yet the crowd is completely unaware that Jesus is riding into the city in the inauguration of his kingdom, not through being seated on a throne, but being nailed to a cross.

This is what he's making his way into the city for, that he would actually be crucified in the perfect plan and will of God.

And we see later on in John chapter 12, just a few weeks from now, Jesus will declare, and when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself.

John 12 · chapter mention

And so these Greeks who come to request this meaning for Jesus is almost a first fruits or a sign pointing to this reality that when Christ is lifted up, he will draw all men unto himself.

And so perhaps John wants to invite us, the reader, in to witness the true king and the true reality of his kingdom.

Jesus would not be a king who liberates his people from captivity at the expense of Gentile nations, but a king who liberates his people for the inclusion of all peoples throughout the earth.

That Jesus was not going to be the king that they desired him to be, nor would his kingdom usher in the heaven on earth that they so longed for.

But little did they know, nor could they see, that the king he was in the kingdom he was inaugurating was infinitely better.

Verse 22, Philip went and told Andrew.

Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus, and Jesus answered them, The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.

Now, this is the first time Jesus has ever said, The hour has come.

All throughout the rest of the gospel narrative of John, he had used over and over again that his time had not yet come.

The hour was not at hand.

But here, for the first time, John invites us into the hour has come.

This is the time for Jesus to be lifted up.

He was going to truly stand in this moment over these next few days under the cross, casted shadow of his fate.

But notice how Jesus finishes this sentence.

The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.

You see, Jesus' glorification was not in the cries of the crowd, but it was in the coming agony of the cross.

This has been a theme throughout the Gospel of John, helping us understand the true nature of our King and His kingdom.

It wasn't the crowd lining the streets of Jerusalem with palm branches in, crying out.

That wasn't the glory of which he had come for.

The glory of which Christ had come for was in the cross itself.

And the supreme way that Jesus displays the glory of God is there at the cross because at the cross, Jesus pays the penalty of sin on behalf of sinners.

At the cross, Jesus displayed both the justice and the mercy of God in being crushed to make a kingdom full of reconciled rebels.

And the rest of Jesus' response to Andrew and Philip, he lays out the cost of the kingdom.

Whoever loves his life is gonna lose it.

And whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

Here's what Jesus is saying.

If you love this life, if you desire to save it, you will ultimately lose it.

You will cry out to kings to save your temporal kingdom, and at the end you lose everything.

But if you despise this life, if it causes your soul to be in a holy unrest, you will cry out to the true king who alone is able to truly save, and you will forever rest in his eternal kingdom.

That's what Jesus is laying out here.

You see, Jesus wasn't the king they were looking for, but he was the one they needed.

Jesus wasn't the king they were looking for, but he was the one that they needed.

Now, let's go back in the story a little bit.

So Jesus comes into the city, and it says that he finds a donkey and he mounts it to be ushered into the city.

Now, this has huge uh uh implications to the story because they are hailing him as king over all of Israel.

Now, if a king was going to come in for war, that king would not be mounted on a donkey, he would be mounted on a horse.

If he was coming in to start a battle, if he was coming in to overturn this tyranny of which oppressed them, then he was going to be coming in on a horse because a king had to be ready for action.

We we see true kings throughout the Old Testament, specifically in the person of David.

And what was David?

He was the first into battle, riding on a horse, ready to go to war for his people.

But Jesus wasn't seated on a horse, he was seated on a donkey.

And what that told us, that what that tells us today, because because the disciples didn't even get it, right?

In the text, if you go back and read it, it says that they didn't really even understand what in the world was going on, but it was after all this had taken place that they realized what was being shown to them in this moment.

It was in times of peace that kings would ride in on donkeys.

These slow, humble creatures have no sense of hurry, no sense of power.

In times of peace, kings would ride in on donkeys.

Now, wait a second.

If they're crying out, save us now, and they're resting under this overcast of Rome's tyranny, and they're saying, No, this is the king who's supposed to come and deliver us from all of this so that we can have what we truly long for, then this has to be a very confusing image before them.

And how was Jesus going to come and bring peace?

It wasn't going to be through a sword or spear, it was gonna be through three nails in crude timber.

That's how Jesus was going to bring peace to his people.

Because what they really needed delivered from, what they really needed him to do and accomplish on their behalf was not to overthrow Rome, but to overthrow their own wicked heart.

Because Jesus loves them.

Jesus loves them so much that he was willing to lose his own life that they might gain it.

You see, he was the king of peace who was making a war against the enemy of their sin.

And they didn't see it, they couldn't understand it, and they were crying out, save us now.

And and you can just imagine in Jesus' mind and heart, he says, You don't even understand how I'm going to save you.

It's not going to be in the way that you imagine, and it's not going to be for the things that your heart hopes for, but it's going to be for something infinitely greater.

This prophecy of Jesus riding in on a horse comes out of Zechariah 9 9.

It says, Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion.

Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem, behold, your king is coming to you.

Righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

And so Jesus is coming into the city of Jerusalem, the capital of Israel, surrounded by a multitude of people who are crying out to him, save us now.

And he does so on this vehicle of peace.

And he's coming to bring peace to a turmoiled people.

He's coming to bring salvation to those who have been held captive.

But he's coming to do it through his own sacrifice.

The hour has come.

Many of us, I believe, we desire to be saved now to preserve the life we love.

We desire to be saved now to preserve the life we love.

I think a lot of us have problems with Jesus because we see him as a different king who's supposed to usher us in to our own idea of a kingdom.

Whether that be uh a prosperity in this life, right?

Jesus, if you really are this king, then you'll give me all the things that I so long for, and you'll be able to help me be liberated from this oppression that I feel, this oppression of not having enough or not being enough, this oppression of the sickness or disease that I bear in my body, or this situation of oppression of being lonely and not having companionship, or this situation of not having the right education to make it in this world.

Jesus, if you're really the king I think you are, you're gonna come and make war against my enemy.

And you're gonna bring me into the kingdom that my heart so longs for.

And I need to help you understand something.

If Jesus wants to damn you, he's gonna do it by giving you everything.

You've ever wanted.

If that's the king and that's the kingdom you want, the the the absolute most condemning reality for us would be for Jesus to look at these sin-filled hearts and say, I'll give you everything that you want.

Because I think he's really disinterested in giving us what we want in this world without first giving him self to us.

And so we get sad, man.

We get depressed, we get frustrated, we get angry when we look at Jesus and we say, You were supposed to be this king.

I followed you, I cried out your praise, I sacrificed parts of my life for you so that you would give me this, and you didn't come through on it.

And a lot of us we just turn the other way and we find another king to hail his glory.

You see, we're the ones who desire to be saved now.

We're the ones whose hearts cry out, Hosanna, to save or preserve this life that we love.

Jesus is a really emotional person.

Now, what I love is that Jesus doesn't allow his emotions to ultimately dictate his behavior.

But Jesus is like if you watch those like horrible old movies where Jesus is just monotone and kind of uh weak and feeble, like that's not Jesus.

Jesus is uh awesome and uh he's super emotional.

Throughout the language of the scriptures, in Jesus' own words, there's multiple times he calls us to hate things for him, to despise, to have this posture uh of uh of like an enemy against us, right?

And so he calls us to, if you do not hate your own mother and father, if you do not hate your brother or sister, if you do not hate the people who are around you to come after me, you don't deserve me.

And here he's saying, if you don't hate this world, if you don't hate this life, if you don't have this strong uh posture of despising what's in front of you, you can't come after me.

And here's what Jesus is saying: what should our attitude be about anything in this life that keeps us from Him?

We should hate those things.

And man, there's people, even myself, it's like, man, do I hate sin enough that I'm willing to do whatever it takes to make sure that it is not standing in between me and Jesus any longer?

Men, if it's your smartphone or your computer or whatever it is that causes you to keep going after these empty wells of lust, will you put it under the rear tire of your car and just put the thing in reverse and crush it?

Will you chuck it into a lake?

Will you do whatever it takes?

Will you hate these things?

Because Christ came to make war against those things.

Christ came to make war.

People, what is it that you are looking to Jesus for?

What king are you imagining him to be?

What kingdom are you hoping that he will usher you into?

Because if it's not that he is the king of your heart, and his kingdom is an everlasting one where he and his throne is the center of all the glory and radiant splendor.

If it's not that, can I just tell you, he's going to greatly disappoint you.

And the problem with that pursuit is that we are going to lose everything in it.

I am growing to hate this life.

And not in a way where you all need to worry about me.

I love my babies, I love my wife, I love you deeply.

But man, even after this week of experiencing the curse of this world in such a way, it just makes me hate this world, this life.

As we're coming up into this election, man, I hate this world.

I hate this life.

Can I speak to the election for just a moment?

I don't need your permission.

But uh we're having fun today.

Um, if over the next, what is today?

May, May, June, July, August, if over the next seven months your words point the people around you more to your candidate than to Christ.

Your king and your kingdom need checked.

I don't care how this election goes.

I'm gonna vote.

I'm gonna be a part, I'm gonna be a good citizen.

But can I tell you that my prayer is that over these next seven months, my mouth, my life, my actions point people to Christ over some candidate?

Because if they fail to do that, I have to ask myself what's going on.

Is that what Jesus is?

A king riding in on a horse to liberate us from some party that we disagree with so that we can have a better economy and squander our wealth and possessions in the ways that we've continued to do and to have power and this so-called sense of free.

Is that what we're here for?

Is that what Jesus is here for?

He's not.

Let every throne, let every earthly kingdom crumble.

Christ is unmoved.

And so this is a real pulse for us in this moment.

We this is the reality of, we are so tempted to look at Jesus as some other king who's supposed to usher us into some other kingdom.

And man, our world just collapses when he doesn't come through on that.

And you know what?

That's his mercy that he doesn't come through on that.

Because his loving kindness to you is to show you that he is the true king who brings his people into his eternal kingdom.

Here's our hope: Jesus brings true salvation to those he loves through the loss of his own life.

He's not the king we expected, but he is the king we so desperately need.

Instead of a royal robe, his body was robed in torn flesh and blood.

Instead of a majestic diadem, his head was crowned with thorns.

Instead of seated on a throne of glory, he was hung on a cross of shame.

Instead of the crushing of his foes, he was crushed by the Father.

And instead of conquering his enemies with the sword, he conquers you with the cross.

This is the king we need.

The battle isn't out here.

The fight, the enemy, the war, the whatever, the oppression you're feeling, it's not out here.

Man, it's right here.

And Jesus came to make war on that, the sin that resides in our own heart, because that's what was keeping us from his eternal kingdom.

We were the enemies.

Because of our own rebellion, but Christ comes and he reconciles his enemies as children of the Father so that we can live with him in glory forever.

It is those who despise this world that gain eternal life in him.

You see, for all of us in this room, my prayer is that Jesus is king.

Many of us look at the foolishness of the cross and we reject a king who could ever look like that.

But that king is the very king we don't even realize we so desperately need.

And for us, church, in Jerusalem on that day, Jesus rode in on a donkey.

Jesus was ushered into the capital of Israel as the king of peace.

But can I help us understand that at his second coming, Christ mounts a horse?

He doesn't mount a donkey again.

If we aren't right with Jesus, if we don't count him as a king of our life, if we don't declare him with our mouth and with our hearts as Lord over all creation, there's a time coming where he no longer is the king of peace and he is the king of war.

At his second glorious coming, he does not come on the back of a donkey, he's mounted on a horse of war and he slays his enemies.

Let's just look at this picture for a moment of Revelation 19, 11 through 16.

John the Apostle speaks of what he saw in a vision.

Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse.

The one sitting on it is called faithful and true, and in righteousness he judges and makes war.

His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself.

He is clothed in a robe dripped in blood, and the name by which he is called is the word of God.

And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses.

From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron.

He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty, and on his robe and on his thigh he has a name written King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

In his first coming, he was lowly, humble, meek, and willing to lay his life down for the peace of his people.

Church, in his second coming, he strikes down the nations as he mounts a horse to make war against all of his enemies.

So my prayer is that we claim Jesus as the true King He is now.

That we don't take for granted the kindness of God that has given us time and opportunity to submit our life to Jesus.

Because, as Paul said in Romans, that his kindness is supposed to lead us to repentance, not push back the timeline.

And so see the king mounted on a donkey, coming to lay down his life for the ones that he loves.

And hail him.

Hail him as the King of kings and Lord of Lords.

My prayer for us, church, is that our love for this life would diminish as our love for King Jesus increases.

Our love for this life would diminish as our love for King Jesus increases.

Man, I am just starting to really think through and pray through.

Lord, where is my heart?

Like what do I grip onto in this life?

What is my heart like riddled with affection for that that it shouldn't?

And I because I want every space of this to be in just love with him.

That he's all satisfying, that he's the only source of joy, that he's the fountain of blessing and goodness.

And I try to find it in all of these frivolous things, these empty wells I keep going back to try and get a drink from.

And what is going on here?

I have such a hard time to see Jesus truly as King of my life.

And even in this moment, man, I try, I try to look at what I have and say, no, this is this is, I love this.

And I just want to be like Job, man.

If you slay me, I will still, if you take everything from me, if you strip me of my home and my family, if you strip me of all of my health and my possessions, if you slay me, still I will worship you.

Too many of us, church, our relationship with Jesus is subconsciously conditional.

Jesus, if you keep doing these things for me, then I'll keep loving you.

And the moment that that stops, man, we're wrecked.

We're wrecked because we didn't really want Jesus, we just wanted what he could give us.

And the most loving thing that Jesus can do is not give you his stuff, but give you himself.

And that's what I want my heart to realize and know and rest in.

I want to keep growing in an increased love for King Jesus.