Who is He?

(upbeat music)

- Hey, this is Pastor John Ryan Cantu

from Pneuma Church in Houston, Texas.

Thank you for listening to the message today.

I hope that it blesses you

and all those that you share it with.

God bless you.

(upbeat music)

♪ We're gonna be real ♪

- Amen.

I want you to turn with me to Matthew chapter 21.

Matthew 21 · chapter mention

Matthew 21, and we're gonna read 11 verses,

verses one through 11.

Matthew 21, one through 11.

Let me know when you got it.

Say amen.

Amen.

Now have it up here if you need it,

but it's Matthew 21, one through 11.

I'm just gonna ask for your attention this morning.

I mean, I expect it every Sunday,

but I'll let you know, I want it today as well.

Amen.

It says this, it says,

"Now when they drew near to Jerusalem

and came to Beth-Age to the Mount of Olives,

then Jesus sent two disciples saying to them,

go into the village in front of you,

and immediately you will find a donkey tied

and a colt with her.

Untie them and bring them to me.

If anyone says anything to you,

you shall say the Lord needs them

and he will send them at once.

This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet,

saying, say to the daughter of Zion,

behold, your king is coming to you,

humble and mounted on a donkey,

on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.

Then the disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them.

They brought the donkey and the colt

and put them on their cloaks and they sat on them.

And most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road

and others cut branches from the trees

and spread them on the road.

And the crowds that went before him

and that followed him were shouting,

Hosanna to the son of David.

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

Hosanna in the highest.

And when he entered Jerusalem,

the whole city was stirred up saying, who is this?

And the crowd said, this is the prophet Jesus

from Nazareth of Galilee.

Amen, let's pray.

Heavenly Father, I thank you for this word

that you've spoken over your servant, my God.

I pray that you would speak it

to your people this morning, Lord.

I pray that you would preach it, Father God.

I pray, Lord, that we would set aside every distraction,

Father God, that we would just be focused on you

and your word, Holy Spirit, take over in this moment,

Father God.

I pray that you would give me a sensitivity

to what you wanna do and what you wanna say, Father,

in Jesus' name, amen.

Amen.

You can go ahead and be seated this morning.

Hallelujah.

As my wife mentioned, today begins

what is known as Holy Week,

which was the final week before Jesus went to the cross.

And so Palm Sunday, which is today,

this is why we have palms.

We're not just decorating.

These are palms.

And today celebrates the triumphal entry of Jesus

into Jerusalem as he declared that he was, in fact,

messianic king that had long been awaited by the Jews.

That's what today signifies, amen.

And I know that Palm Sunday kinda gets overshadowed

by its like, cooler brother, Resurrection Sunday.

But I love Palm Sunday too, because this is a day

that reminds us that Jesus is king.

Jesus is king.

He is a mighty, victorious king who is worthy

to be praised and worshiped every single day.

And we know that Jesus reigns over life.

He also reigns over death.

But this is something that I think Christians

kinda fail to see sometimes, because as Christians,

we think of Jesus as king in a very spiritual way, right?

And he is, but he is also king over the physical,

where his very voice gave light to the universe,

where his hand parted the Red Sea.

He's got every creature under his dominion.

The Bible says that he creates good and he creates calamity.

Not even the devil can escape the kingship of Jesus.

Jesus was king before he got on that donkey.

Jesus was king before he stepped on to the earth.

In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God,

and the word was God.

And so whether it's Palm Sunday or Good Friday,

the day that Jesus went to the cross,

we celebrate as Christians because he is always going to be,

he has always been king of kings and lord of lords.

And that's why I celebrate today,

because I am reminded that my Jesus

is sitting on his throne as king.

Y'all gotta get a little bit more excited on Palm Sunday.

Don't save it for next Sunday.

Be excited every day, because Jesus is alive today

as much as he is next Sunday.

That was a weak clap.

That's, I ain't even gonna,

y'all gonna commit to the clap, commit to the clap.

I just think it's so sad when like,

oh, pause for my sermon.

I think it's sad when the congregation,

I'm not trying to make y'all feel bad,

but when the congregation like gives like a weak clap,

you know, it's like, imagine like,

I just gave the performance of my life,

like singing and like three or four of y'all clap, right?

Like how horrible would I feel?

Jesus up there like shaking his head, come on.

Anyways, in this passage, in the context of this passage,

this was a week filled with a lot of questions

and a lot of confusion and a lot of,

I would say even failed expectations

from people who thought that Jesus

was going to establish a different kind of kingdom, right?

An earthly kingdom.

And I think at this point in Jesus' ministry,

it's worth noting that a lot of people

had already made up their mind about Jesus.

As often is the case in like politics,

there's often two polar opposites.

And that was true regarding Jesus.

Many people saw Jesus as a political figure

rather than a spiritual one.

And so this was the week where final decisions were made

about what people believed about Jesus

and so the question that they asked

when they saw Jesus riding in to Jerusalem was,

who is this?

Who is it?

I think the way that we think about Jesus is so important,

not just to our theology,

but also to our relationship with Jesus.

It's an important question to stop

and ask ourselves from time to time,

what do I think about Jesus?

Because how you think about Jesus

will affect the way that you approach Jesus.

If you think that Jesus is just your savior,

you're only going to approach him when you are in need.

If you just think that Jesus is your provider,

you're gonna approach him when there is a lack.

But Holy Week brings out kind of a whole new revelation

of Jesus, of who Jesus believed himself to be

that was totally incompatible

with the way that people viewed Jesus.

I don't know if you've ever, I'm sure you have,

I'm sure that we've all stopped following somebody

at one point in our lives where maybe we used to follow them,

we used to listen to them,

but then they kind of started saying some things

that were off.

Like this happens all the time with the preachers.

You'll start to listen to a preacher who's coming up

and they're popular and they're charismatic and dynamic

and you like the way that they preach.

And then one day they say something that's a little off

and you're like, wait a minute, right?

And I think sometimes we tend to be unforgiving

when it comes to preachers.

And I think rightfully so.

The Bible says that teachers will be judged more harshly.

And I've done it many times where I'll listen to somebody

and they'll say something.

I try to show a little bit of grace

because people just, sometimes we misspeak as preachers.

Sometimes we don't know everything that we think

that we know until later somebody else shows us

and that's just how it goes.

But what'll happen is if you start to notice a pattern

or you start to hear a certain agenda

that is consistently off,

then you're probably gonna stop following them as a teacher.

That's what was happening with Jesus.

Because when Jesus first started his ministry,

everybody was following Jesus.

Jesus was popular.

And they rightfully believe that he was the Messiah.

And this was all supported by the miracles and the signs

and the wonders that Jesus was doing.

Jesus was doing things that I think a lot of people

could get on board with.

He was a man for the people.

And that's what you want in a leader.

That's what, if you think that Jesus is the Messiah,

the King, that's what you want in a leader.

You want somebody who is for the people.

This man, Jesus, man, he is for the poor.

He is for the oppressed.

He is for the widow and the orphan.

Like this is the guy that I can get on board with.

And so everybody was following Jesus at one point in time.

But then the Gospel of John records a very pivotal moment

for the followers of Jesus.

Because now Jesus was starting to say some things

that sounded off.

He started to talk about himself as the Son of God.

And so he was losing credibility.

He sounded weird in the things that he was saying.

He was saying things that didn't fit their theology.

He's saying things that mama didn't raise me thinking.

And so many of them, the Bible says, made them turn away.

John chapter six, Jesus is saying

that he and the Father are one.

He is the bread of life.

He is the living water.

Eat of my flesh, drink of my blood.

There's some crazy talk.

And then he starts talking about himself as a servant,

not even the King.

And so after all of this, verse 66 says,

many of his disciples turned back

and no longer walked with Jesus.

And I read that and sometimes I wonder, man,

how many of us would have been among the crowds

who turned away and stopped following Jesus?

You know what I'm saying?

Like in hindsight, it's easy to criticize

because we have the completed scripture.

But if I were there during Jesus' time,

watching him do all of these amazing things,

and then all of a sudden he flips the script

and he starts talking about how he and the Father are one,

I don't know, that's different, right?

That's different.

And when your beliefs are challenged,

church, don't act like this ain't true.

It messes you up.

Like you get fired up when you hear people talk

in a way that you don't agree with.

You wanna just jump into their conversation

and punch somebody, right?

We all do that.

When somebody is talking in a way

that we completely just disagree with,

we have to be careful not to make a God out of our beliefs.

If God were to tell you to do something

that went against everything that you believe

to be right or true,

and here I think about the story of Abraham and Isaac,

and you refused to do it because you didn't believe

that it was the right thing to do.

You just made a God out of your beliefs.

How many of us believe, or at least we say,

that the Bible is the authoritative word of God, amen?

And so if you read in the Bible

and you read something that you don't agree with,

and this happens quite often, especially in modern times,

you read something and you're like,

"I like everything, but I don't really like that.

"I don't really agree with that.

"I love the loving parts of Jesus.

"I don't really agree with that.

"That does something to my feelings, to my beliefs."

And you say, "Oh, I can't do that.

"I can't get on board with that.

"You have subjected God to your beliefs.

"Your beliefs are your God."

And so this is how we know that the people

who stopped following Jesus weren't following him

because they thought he was divine.

They were following him because he was powerful.

And so one of the missions of Jesus while he was on earth

was to get people to see and believe in him.

Not just to believe in what Jesus could do,

but to believe in his essence.

Many people follow Jesus at first

because they believed in his works.

They believed that he was a miracle worker.

They believed that he could cast out demons.

They believed that he could raise dead to life.

That is essential to faith, by the way.

You have to be able to believe in the mighty works

of our God, and we just sang about it.

But Jesus was more concerned with people believing

in who he was.

Because at the end of the day, church,

you can believe in all the things that Jesus can do,

but if you don't submit yourself to the kingship of Jesus

because of who he is,

you ain't gonna get into heaven like that.

You don't get into heaven just believing that God can.

You get into heaven believing that God, Jesus, is.

That's how you get into heaven.

Jesus said the only way to get to the Father

is through me, through the Son.

Not by being a witness to what I've done.

Not by even being a recipient of what I've done,

but by your belief in who I am.

This is why I think Jesus was one of the most

misunderstood individuals who ever lived.

Because even his disciples didn't understand

the things that Jesus was saying half the time.

And I think that the reason for this was because

the priority of the people was not the priority

of the Messiah.

They were different.

When you have different priorities,

you see things in different ways.

And I don't know if you realize this,

but God does this all the time, man.

God puts us in seasons, and we gravitate to what's obvious.

You know what I'm saying?

We gravitate to what is natural.

And we fail to see the bigger picture.

So Pastor Danny, last week he preached on Lazarus.

And if we think about like Mary and Martha,

they found themselves in this moment

where they gravitated to what was obvious.

They gravitated to the most obvious need,

which was the healing of their brother, Lazarus.

That was their prayer.

That was their focal point.

I have a sick brother.

He's dying.

Jesus, he needs to be healed.

And so they send word to Jesus,

and they say, Jesus, Lazarus, whom you love, is sick.

Come at once and heal him.

That is the focus of their situation.

And Jesus wasn't even worried about healing Lazarus.

Jesus stays there like another day before he leaves.

And he dies.

Lazarus dies.

And so Mary and Martha are now in another moment

where they again gravitate to what is obvious.

Their grief, their sorrow, their questioning.

They say, Jesus, if you were only here,

if you wouldn't have delayed,

if you would have just come when we told you to come,

our brother would still be alive.

But again, Jesus has a different priority.

He's thinking further.

He's thinking bigger.

He's not thinking healing.

He's not thinking coping.

He's thinking resurrecting.

You might be in a season right now

where you are gravitating to what is obvious

and to what is natural.

And you're not asking God,

God, what do you want me to see in this moment?

What do you want me to do through this moment?

Sometimes God will throw you into the lion's den,

and we're so fixated on the obvious,

which is the lions, their teeth, their hunger.

And God's like, it's not even about the lions.

It's not even about survival.

It's about trust.

So many times we are fixated

on what we think is so obvious in our moments.

And this is why I think Jesus was misunderstood,

because people had different priorities

than the priorities that Jesus had.

Their priorities was to make Jesus king.

That wasn't really the priority of Jesus when he came.

And so he gets to Jerusalem,

and he declares his kingship, right?

But it's not exactly the triumphal entry

that most of the Jews might have hoped to see.

The Bible says that he comes riding humbled on a donkey.

I don't know about you, man,

but when I pray with power and authority,

I expect God to come in riding on a war horse.

So you'll know.

I mean, if I am praying for a healing,

if I am praying for deliverance from an enemy,

for a situation, I want my God to come like the God of Elijah.

I want the fire to fall from heaven.

That's who I want.

That's the king that I want.

But Jesus came riding on a donkey.

That's like the equivalent of a chihuahua.

Give me a pit bull.

No, he came riding in a chihuahua.

And you know, I think that if I were a Jew in Jesus' day,

I might have criticized Jesus.

Because if you look at the scriptures,

Jesus never went head to head with Rome, never.

And that's what everybody thought about Jesus,

that he was going to overthrow Rome,

and he was gonna deliver the Jewish people

from their oppression.

Jesus is over here arguing with the Pharisees,

which, I mean, Pharisees are horrible people.

But shouldn't you be attacking Rome?

Shouldn't you be going after Caesar?

Shouldn't you carry a sword?

What kind of king is Jesus?

That's why he was misunderstood.

And so throughout the gospels,

everyone is saying something about Jesus.

Everybody has an opinion about Jesus.

He even asks his disciples, what's the word on the street?

Who do people say that I am?

Well, some people say that you're a prophet.

Some people say that you are Elijah, like a judgment.

Some hail him as son of David.

Some say that you are the Christ, you are the Messiah.

Some say that you are king.

Some say that you are teacher.

Everybody has some form of opinion about Jesus.

And even though Jesus was every single one of those things,

I want you to notice that he really only talked about

his service to the Father.

The gospels talk about Jesus, the gospel writers,

they talk about Jesus as the son of David, as a Messiah,

as a king, as a prophet, as the most high priest.

But Jesus himself, if you read those red letters

in your Bible, you'll mostly hear Jesus identify himself

with the son of God.

This is why he praises Peter,

when he says, you get it, Peter.

I am the son of the living God.

You get it, you understand it.

Because everybody else is saying things that yes, are true,

but they're missing the bigger picture in who I am.

Because Jesus needed people, are you still with me?

Jesus needed people to understand that he was and is God.

And that everything that he was doing on earth

was because the Father sent him to do it.

Jesus was trying to save people from their sins.

That was the primary reason Jesus came on earth

was to be the perfect sacrifice for your sins,

for my sins.

Can it be that sometimes we forget

that that was why Jesus came?

He didn't come to fix your every problem.

He didn't come to be your genie on command.

He came to set the captives free from the power

and the bondage of sin.

That's why he came.

He came to do what no human could do, no king could do,

no ruler can do, no warrior can do.

He came to set the power of sin to death.

(congregation laughing)

People didn't get it.

And so in order for Jesus to deliver you from your sin,

you must accept Jesus as what?

Lord.

Lord.

Jesus already saved you,

but it's until you make him Lord

that you receive that salvation.

Jesus doesn't have to go on the cross again to die for you.

He already did it.

He's already set you free.

He said it on the cross.

It is finished.

I did what I came to do.

But only those who would receive him as Lord

get to be partakers,

get to have that inheritance

that the Father has prepared

before the foundations of the earth.

But that was the thing that so many people didn't understand,

that Jesus was God.

I think it's very easy,

and we see this throughout the scriptures,

it's easy to turn away from a teacher

'cause the moment they start to say something

that challenges your beliefs,

all you gotta do is look for another teacher.

It's easy to turn away from a prophet

because the moment they start to say things

that are a little bit off,

or the moment they start to prophesy something

that you don't like,

or the moment they start to offend you,

all you gotta do is walk out the church

and make sure the pastor never brings them back again.

It's easy to turn away from a miracle worker

because when you've already gotten the miracle,

what is keeping you around?

It's even easy to turn away from the king

as we see through Holy Week,

the people are hailing him as the Messiah,

and then a week later,

the crowds are demanding that their Messiah be crucified.

But Jesus knew something.

He knew that when someone gives their whole heart

and their whole soul and their whole mind to God,

it's not that easy to turn away

because when Jesus is truly God in your life,

there is wholeness in your life

that you never again wanna go without.

I think people don't accept Jesus as God

like they think that they do.

And that's why it's so easy to walk away

because you're treating Jesus one dimensionally.

You are taking one of the many areas of Jesus,

you're taking it for you because that's what you like,

but Jesus is so much more than that.

And so when God stops being the miracle worker for a season,

when God wants to show you a dry season,

when God wants to take you into the wilderness

where there's nothing that grows there,

but your whole foundation of your relationship

was predicated on what he did for you,

that's when you walk away.

That's why Jesus was so set on getting people

to see who he was, not just on what I could do,

but who I am, I am the son of the living God.

I am the alpha and the omega.

I was there in the beginning

before the foundations of the earth.

I was there all the time.

I am and I will always be.

There's a passage in 1 John that says,

it says, "They went out from us, but they were not of us.

For if they had been of us,

they would have continued with us.

But they went out that it might become plain

that they are not all of us.

But you have been anointed by the Holy One,

and you have," somebody say that, "knowledge."

You have knowledge.

You have revelation.

When somebody who comes into the body of Christ,

when they receive that revelation,

that revelation that Peter received,

the revelation that Jesus said,

it wasn't you that sees this,

it was revealed to you by my Father in heaven.

When you have that revelation

that Jesus is the Son of the living God,

it keeps you grounded.

What is that special knowledge that John is talking about?

You keep reading it.

He tells us in verse 23, he says,

"No one who denies a son has the Father,

but whoever confesses the Son has the Father."

And so church, if Jesus, I want you to get this,

if Jesus is anything else in your life before he is God,

you are in danger of turning away from him.

I'm gonna say it again.

If Jesus is anything else in your life before he's God,

you are in danger.

I fear for you, and I'm praying for you.

And believe me, I pray for you all the time

because I'm sick and tired of seeing people come in

and get this artificial salvation and then walk out.

You have to believe that Jesus is God

before he's anything else.

And I know most people in the room

would say that Jesus is God.

But saying that Jesus is God intellectually

and theologically is different than actually living it out.

Your heart doesn't always align with your mind.

You know what I'm saying?

I know in my mind I shouldn't eat that second piece of cake.

Shoot, I shouldn't have had the first one.

But my heart doesn't always agree with my mind.

And so even though you sing the songs about Jesus being God,

even though you understand it theologically,

even though you could probably give a class

and a preaching on it,

does your heart agree with your mind

that Jesus is in fact God?

I said earlier, people have a,

very often they have a one-to-one relationship

with Jesus.

Their relationship with Jesus is one-dimensional.

In the gospels we see these one-dimensional interactions

with Jesus all the time.

To some he was a prophet, to some he was a teacher,

to some he was a king, to some he was a healer.

Peter recognizes the truth.

You're the son of the living God.

You are not just my healer.

You are not just my provider.

You are not just Shalom.

You are not just my peacemaker.

You are not just my healer.

You are not just my peacemaker. You are God.

And if you are God, that means that you are everything

that makes me and that makes the world whole and complete.

I want you to understand that.

I want you to understand what I just said.

If Jesus is truly God in your life,

that means you are complete.

You got the fullness.

You got everything that you need.

If Jesus is God, you don't even need Him to be anything else.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,

they didn't need to be rescued from the fiery furnace.

They were still going to worship God as God.

They didn't need God to be deliverer.

He was still gonna be God at the end of the day.

Abraham could have gone through with the test of his life

and still would have confessed Yahweh as God.

Because when Jesus is God, there is wholeness in your life.

You have to understand, church,

that Jesus is meant to fill every single void in your life.

What does that thing they say?

To know Jesus is to know peace.

If you know Jesus, you know peace.

I'm sorry, man, but I think some people just don't know peace

because they don't know the real Jesus.

You don't know peace because you don't know the real Jesus.

Peace doesn't mean calmness in your situation.

That's not what peace is.

Peace is calmness in your soul

when there is no calmness in your situation.

Peace isn't security where you're waiting for everything

to be good financially and making sure you got enough money

in the bank account and you got a steady job

and all the bills are paid.

That's not what peace is.

Peace is calmness in your soul when there is no security.

Peace is calmness when you ain't got no money

and you still have to pay bills today.

Who is Jesus to you, church?

I want you to think about that right now

in this walk of your life with Jesus.

Is he God or is he something else?

Because you know what, God is Jehovah Jireh.

He is Jehovah Rapha.

He is Elohim.

He is Nisi.

He is Shalom.

He is all of these things.

But first he's God.

First he's God.

He didn't introduce himself to Moses

as any one singular name.

He said, "I am," and left it at that.

Because I am anything that I need to be.

That is what it means to be God.

Yahweh is God.

I will be that which I will be.

(congregation applauding)

And when you have a one dimensional view of God,

I think it will get you to God.

And we see this all the time.

We see this all the time as pastors.

People walk into the door and they find God

through a one dimensional moment.

Meaning you come to church because you've got cancer

and you need a healing over your life.

And you remember the reports about that.

Well, what they say about Jesus, Jesus is a healer.

So you come to the altars and you're asking for healing.

And maybe you get that healing

and that becomes your testimony.

And now that's what you know Jesus to be, your healer.

Praise the Lord.

Praise the Lord for that.

Maybe you know Jesus because he fixed your marriage.

But you also have to understand that when you get to God,

you might not always find him in the same place

where you found him before.

Sometimes you're not gonna find God in the fix.

You're gonna find him in the broken.

You're not gonna find him in the victory

where you're looking for him.

Sometimes you're gonna find him in your despair

when you're going deeper in the moment of your loss.

That's where you find him.

More often than not, our prayers,

and maybe this is just me,

but we ask for the works of God to be present

more than we ask for God himself to be present.

See or no?

We come and we ask for a need

and so we ask for the hand of God.

Instead of just saying,

"God, just let your presence be here.

"Because if your presence is here, I'm already healed.

"If your presence is here, I'm already whole."

But we seek God one dimensionally.

Yes, Jesus heals.

Yes, Jesus restores.

Yes, he provides.

But more than what Jesus does,

but more than what Jesus does is who he is.

And when you build your faith on what Jesus does

rather than who he is,

it is only a matter of time that you walk away

and let Jesus be crucified on that cross

because he didn't do for you what you expected him to do.

I don't mean to sound mad this morning,

but I believe that God is looking for a church

who understands who his son is.

A church that worships him in spirit and in truth.

A church that recognizes Jesus as God.

I missed that song.

We need to sing it.

♪ Because of who you are I give you glory ♪

♪ Because of who you are I give you praise ♪

♪ Because of who you are I will ♪

Start a little high.

♪ Lord I worship you because of who you are ♪

Not because of what you do, but because of who you are.

That's the difference.

That's the difference, church.

I'm almost done.

I'm gonna have the worship team come up.

But the text says that the people shouted, "Hosanna, Hosanna."

What does that mean?

Save us.

The people were shouting, "Save us."

Hosanna to the son of David, Hosanna in the highest.

The people were shouting, "Hosanna,"

because they knew that Jesus was fulfilling the prophecy

when he came down riding on that donkey.

They remember what the prophet Zachariah said.

The prophet Zachariah, he said in Zachariah 9, 9,

"Behold, your king is coming to you righteous

"and having salvation, humble and mounted on a donkey."

But the Bible also says in John's account

that the disciples didn't understand

how this was a fulfillment of prophecy.

Have you ever been there before?

You're like, how is this a fulfillment of prophecy?

They didn't understand it

because even though this was a fulfilled prophecy,

it wasn't entirely fulfilled.

In scripture, we see a lot of,

I'm almost done, don't let me lose you.

In scripture, we see a lot of prophecy fulfilled, amen.

We also see a lot of partial fulfillment.

And sometimes when we have a negative view of prophecy

in our own lives, we think that if the prophecy

didn't happen all at once, it's not gonna happen at all.

And we throw it out.

Or we say that the source, the prophetic word was wrong,

they got some details wrong,

because even though it happened a little bit,

it didn't happen all the way.

But if in the Bible we see partial fulfillment,

we should also look for and expect partial fulfillment.

But the thing is, when it comes to prophecy,

we don't always consider the whole prophecy.

We focus on the feel-good part.

We focus on the victory parts.

We focus on the parts that are about us.

See or no?

It's not till God starts speaking into your situation

that you get emotional.

And that's what we focus on.

I have received many prophetic words over my life,

over this church.

And I'm gonna be honest with you,

I only remember the good stuff.

I pay attention more to the destination

than I do the journey.

I got selective hearing when it comes to prophecy.

I hear expansion for the church.

That's what I remember.

I don't remember anything else.

I hear abundance for your family.

I hear salvation for your family.

I hear salvation for your family.

That's what I remember.

Why do we do that?

Because we gravitate to what our priorities are.

We gravitate to what we want

and what we expect God to do in our lives for us.

But what if God has other priorities

that aren't even on your radar, church?

Zechariah 9, if you go home and you read it,

it's a whole prophecy, the whole chapter,

the whole prophecy, even into chapter 10

concerning the Messiah.

And I wanna read real quick what comes after verse 9, okay?

It says, "I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim

"and the war horse from Jerusalem.

"And the battle bow shall be cut off

"and he shall speak peace to the nations.

"His rule shall be from sea to sea and from the river

"to the end of the earth.

"Ask for you also, because of my blood covenant with you,

"I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit."

He says, "Return to your stronghold, oh prisoners of hope.

"Today I declare that I will restore you double."

Look at verse 16.

It says, "On that day the Lord their God

"will save them as the flock of his people,

"for like the jewels of a crown,

"they shall shine on his land,

"for how great is his goodness and how great his beauty.

"Grain shall make the young men flourish

"and a new wine with the young women."

That's great.

But the only part of the prophecy that's been fulfilled

is Jesus riding in on a donkey.

That's it.

And so when the people see Jesus riding in on a donkey

to Jerusalem, I can just imagine what's going on in their minds.

They're like, "Oh snap, it's a donkey.

"It's about to go down.

"Today he's on a donkey,

"tomorrow he's gonna be on a war horse."

And so because of that expectancy,

they begin to hail him as a son of David.

Hail to the King, hail to the Christ.

Hosanna in the highest, save us.

But the priority of the people

was not the same as the priority of the Messiah.

And so when Jesus began to show a little bit of meekness,

when he began to show a little bit of humility,

when the world wanted brute force,

when Jesus submitted himself to the Romans,

when the people wanted a resistance,

the same people who chanted, "Son of David,"

began to mock him as a king of the Jews.

And I always remember the words of Jesus on that cross,

looking up to the Father.

Saying, "Forgive them, for they know not what they do."

They don't understand it.

The compassion of my Jesus,

who was just trying to get everybody

to understand who he was.

And even when they did it on the cross,

the moment of his death says,

"Forgive them because they didn't get it yet."

So many people failed to see that Jesus

was already on the cross.

Jesus was already king.

He needed no royal procession.

He needed no introduction.

He needed no inauguration.

He has been king long before the foundations

of the world were established.

But as the Son of God, he had to humble himself

to offer salvation in a way

that most people did not understand.

Church, Jesus wants to give you something better

than what you're asking for.

He wants you to stand with me.

And I want you to realize that,

that whatever you're asking for this morning,

whatever you've been expecting this morning,

Jesus wants to give you something better.

He has something better.

Because he's more than just the king,

he's more than just the healer,

he's more than just a savior, he is God.

Stop limiting God.

Stop limiting him to just a savior,

to just a miracle worker, to just a provider.

Because my God can do things

that you never thought he could do.

And when we fail to see Jesus

for everything that he is,

we miss out on the fullness of what he has for his people.

And my prayer today, Church,

is that you would always see Jesus for who he is,

not just what he does.

He is the Son of the living God.

He is the Son of the living God.

He has dominion over everything, over everybody,

over every creature, over the entire universe.

That is the God that is in the room today.

And I want you to hail him this morning,

not just as king, but as God.

Because when you see Jesus as God,

it makes it so much more hard to walk away from him

when the situation of your life

isn't going like what you thought it was going to go like.

This morning we are hailing Jesus.

As God.

As God.

And I want the Church to just worship him this morning

as we give our full hearts to him,

our full minds to him.

Holy God, your people worship you this morning.

We worship you this morning

because we know, we know that there is still a second part

of that story.

We know that you are a God who will complete fully

what you said you were going to do.

And even if you only do it partially today,

we know that there is a day coming tomorrow

because you are a God of the Alpha and the Omega.

Your reign never ends.

We worship you, my God.

I want to invite you this morning to the altars

as we just spent some time with the Lord.

Thanks for listening.

If you'd like some more information on Pneuma Church,

visit us on our website at mypneumachurch.org.

If you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe

or share it with your friends on social media

and tag us at My Pneuma Church.

Thanks again and God bless.

(gentle music)

[You were just so definitely in the family.]