John: His Triumphal Entry

So last week we were in John chapter uh beginning of John chapter 12.

John 12 · chapter mention

It just actually just worked out uh that we hit uh this story on this Sunday, which I would have had to skip to this story on this Sunday if we had not just chronologically ended up there.

So this is the story of Jesus making his way into Jerusalem.

It's called the triumphal entry.

Um so last week we talked about this dinner party that was going on, and Jesus was there, and Mary and Martha and Lazarus, and Jesus had uh risen Lazarus from the dead, this huge miracle sort of sealed his fate in a way because this was the point where the the Jewish authorities said, Okay, this is enough.

Uh this guy's upsetting the whole system, our whole system that we are in control of, and we're gonna put an end to him and make sure this gets shut down.

And so, uh, but what's happening with these miracles is he's validating his deity.

And that's the point of these miracles.

Um, and so he's validating his deity, and so there's this following that's occurring with Jesus.

There's the Jewish authorities are getting more and more upset, and so there was this dinner party last week, and this is when we saw Mary break open that expensive uh jar of perfume and pour it on Jesus, and so we looked at that story.

And so this is just the next day.

The story just picks up, it's just it's just the next day, and Jesus is making his way into Jerusalem from Bethany, it's about two miles, so not very far, and and the Passover feast is beginning.

And so you have you have Jews coming from all over the country into Jerusalem for the feast.

And so if you can picture a lot of Jesus' following coming from Galilee up in the north, and so they would have come down, they would have come down like through the desert, and then they were going to be, so that's kind of uh wet uh east of Jerusalem, and so then they're coming up into the mountains where Jerusalem is, and so they're walking up into the mountains, and there's all these songs called the Psalms.

Um, this is in the middle of your Bible, you've seen it.

So that and there's a section of the Psalms called the Psalms of Ascent.

So this is what the Jewish people would be singing walking up into the mountains, ascent, going up, and so so the Jewish people they're they're thinking about Passover, they're thinking about uh relieving themselves with a sacrificial lamb, that guilt they've been carrying all year, they can't wait.

And this day, this is the day of selection for the lamb.

So they are walking up into the mountains, they're singing the Psalms of the Sent.

These Jewish people are thinking about their history and their people.

You know, we were a people in slavery in Egypt, and God delivered us, so they're thinking about freedom, but at the same time they're they're carrying their guilt, and so because it's a day of selection, we're going to pick out that lamb so we can transfer that guilt over to that lamb.

And they're gonna do it next year also, and the next year, and the next year, and the next year, and the next year, and they're gonna keep doing this.

And so they're coming up, singing the Psalms, and Jesus is headed to the same place.

He's headed in the same direction.

So we pick up the story in verse 12.

The next day the great crowd that had come for the festival heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem.

They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting, Hosanna, blessed is the one, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, blessed is the king of Israel.

And so Jesus found a young donkey and he sat on it, as it is written, and this is in Zachariah, so this this prophet Zechariah in the Old Testament, it's 500 years before this happened.

Zachariah says, This do not be afraid, daughter of Zion.

So do not be afraid, people of Israel.

See, your king is coming seated on a donkey's colt.

So Jesus is on the Mount of Olives, which is uh Jerusalem's uh on the kind of this little plateau mountain, and then there's the Kedron Valley, and then there's the Mount of Olives.

So Jesus is on the Mount of Olives, so he can see Jerusalem.

It's just I mean, it's just a valley down and back up, so he can see Jerusalem, and there's there's people just coming from all over, coming into the city.

So he's seeing all of this.

He's seeing this crowd come in, and they're singing as they're coming, and the conversations about freedom, and the conversations of this Lamb Selection Day, so that's going on in their heads, and they are remembering their freedom, and they're remembering that sin always requires a sacrifice.

Sin always requires a sacrifice.

I mean, maybe you say, well, I don't know if I believe that.

I mean, we can just kind of get over it.

Whether you think you believe it or not, you do it.

Like you do this.

Right?

I mean, you screw up, and then um your sacrifice will be if I feel bad enough, I'll sacrifice myself.

If I feel bad enough for a period of time that I subjectively pick out to be my own, I feel bad enough.

Then all of a sudden God's gonna be okay because I have kind of like proven my sorrow.

I've sacrificed myself.

And maybe your sacrifice is a reverse of that, and you pull out the scorecard, the moral scorecard, and you go, okay, well, I you know, I screwed that up, you know, I belittled him, I did this, I really screwed up, maybe a major life screw up, and so I'm gonna pull out the scorecard.

I'm like, we get enough good ones going on if I get enough good ones, and so you sacrifice yourself in that self-striving.

And so we and we all do this.

So this idea that sin requires sacrifice, whether you think you believe it or not, you you actually you do this.

And I I do this as well.

We're trying to be our own sacrifice, we're trying to be our own deliverer, trying to be our own God is really what's going on.

These people are walking up, they have the burden of guilt on them, they're so expectant.

Because it's Lamb Selection Day, and they get to put over their guilt onto that lamb.

And they hear Jesus is coming, and Jesus has become famous at this point.

I mean, like rock star.

I mean, he can't be on the sidewalk at Marietta Pizza.

I mean, that that's not happening.

He's rock star just in Timberlake in a mall on Friday night.

I mean, he can't, he can't go anywhere.

People are showing up everywhere he goes, and so he's coming to the city, and people hear he he's Jesus is showing up, and so people are gathering.

And so Jesus sends his disciples uh to get a donkey in another village.

And so disciples come back, and they have they have a cult of a donkey, and so they have um they have the donkey and the donkey's mama.

I I'm not real up on donkeys and how it works, but um supposedly uh if you get a young donkey, you gotta have the mom coming with the young donkey.

So mom and the young donkey come, and the the king parades in on a donkey.

So I I can remember the first big parade I went to.

1991.

Some of you are gonna remember this, some of you have no idea what I'm talking about.

Uh worst of first.

Do you all remember this?

Braves, worst to first, 1991.

1990, worst team, horrible, nobody cared.

We didn't, we weren't even sure if we had a team.

1991, everything changed.

It was worse to first, it was like miracle season.

I'm in eighth grade.

I vividly remember, maybe you vividly remember, I can remember standing behind the uh recliner in our den, and Sid Bream is coming off second base, and he is running in slow motion.

I mean, you can't a human being can't run this slow.

It's impossible.

And you're going, go Sid, you know, and he's got to get the home for the win, for the worst to first to happen, and I'm jumping, you know, and he's running, you think his knees are just gonna like fall apart, he's barely making it, he goes, and it would.

If it had just been Otis Nixon on second or something, Ron Gann on second, the whole thing wouldn't have been nearly as exciting.

It was so exciting because he was so slow, horribly, painfully slow.

I have the memory, and he makes it in, and it's worse to first, and that's the Braves win! Braves, y'all with me?

Do you remember this?

Some of you remember.

If not, you you're you're picturing it.

And so I'm in eighth grade, everybody skips school.

I mean, I I don't I didn't I don't remember a friend going to school.

Everybody skips school.

My mom gets us out of school because we're going to the parade downtown, and so we got on Marta, me and a bunch of friends, and my mom and some other moms and stuff like that.

So we take Marta and we're just in the masses, kind of coming out of Marta, up onto the sidewalks.

It's a parade for the worst of first, and we're expectant, and I can't wait.

We're gonna see Terry Pendleton, and we're gonna see Raphael Belyard and Greg Olson, and we're gonna see Ron Gantt and David Justice.

That was my guy.

He he married Halle Berry the next year, and that was proved it proved that he was the guy to go for.

All right, so it but you everyone wants to see Sid.

You know, like can he stand up after running two bases that fast?

We're not sure.

But everybody wanted to see Sid.

You're just hoping, like when you're at a parade, you're you're on this, you're hoping, can I catch a glimpse?

Right?

This is what's about, can I catch a glimpse?

And so you know how parades work?

They come down.

And what what are parades about?

Parades are exalting the people in the parade.

How high can we get them?

How decorated can we get them?

And and and you're on the side, you're gonna am I gonna be able to see him?

Can I see him?

And so these people are lined up, these Jewish people are lined up, they're so expectant.

Are we gonna be able to see Jesus?

Will I be able to catch a glimpse, you know, and they're positioning themselves, you know, we'll be able to be able to see him?

What's he gonna be on?

Like an Arabian, a thoroughbred, a quarter horse?

I don't know what he what's he gonna be on?

And he shows he's on a donkey.

Like it isn't it's not homecoming uh preyed in the homecoming kings on the back of the Porsche.

I mean, this is this is homecoming kings on like the 1990 Camry, just sitting on the trunk, like just the donkey was a vehicle of transportation.

Rich people rode donkeys, poor people rode donkeys, everybody rode donkeys.

But it was just transportation.

Nobody rode a donkey into war.

Nobody rode a donkey to take over the city, to overthrow Rome.

Nobody did this, and Jesus is just on a donkey.

It's a symbol of peace.

It's a symbol of peace.

So the disciples get this donkey, they place their cloaks on top of the donkey, and Jesus gets on top of the donkey.

And so that all these people along the parade, all these people, they've they've cut palm branches.

And palm branches, we don't think much about that.

This was a nationalistic symbol.

This is the stars and the stripes.

This is us waving our American flag.

This is us laying the American flag down at somebody's feet.

And so they're laying palm branches down, and they're saying something when they do this.

They're calling out for political freedom.

See, these people are thinking, they're thinking he is coming, he's gonna set us free from the power of Rome.

We're gonna be free from political oppression.

So Jesus is up on the Mount of Olives and he starts coming down, and the crowds are praising him.

And in Luke, in the book of Luke, the triumphal of the tree, Luke describes it that the crowd's actually silent, very quiet, until Jesus gets there.

Maybe they're quiet because they're scared of Rome.

If they're too loud, maybe the Roman soldiers are going to show up.

But they're quiet.

But when Jesus gets there, they can't hold it back.

And they're yelling at Hosanna.

They're saying, Hosanna, Hosanna, laying down the palm branches.

They're yelling at Hosanna, and they're saying, Deliver me.

They're saying, give me my freedom.

And the irony, the irony in all of this is many of them were not proclaiming this out, saying, I need personal freedom.

It's a political declaration going on.

It's a misinterpretation of Jesus.

And here's what Jesus knows: He knows if he liberates them from Rome, they're still not liberated from themselves.

I mean, do you get that?

See, see, if Jesus liberates you from your economic situation, or from like your friendship situation, your work situation, and he and and you get liberated from the situation, you're still you.

See, the liberation has to occur on the inside.

It has to occur inside the heart and the mind of the individual.

He came to liberate us from sin and guilt and shame.

So we don't have to keep making these sacrifices over and over and over again, but he's sufficient.

Last week was a sort of a crazy week.

You know, our our friend Stuart died maybe a week and a half ago, and then we had the funeral, and then we had Sunday, and I was emotionally done.

I was just done on Monday, but it was raining on Monday, and if I'm gonna take a little break, it's not gonna be on a rainy day.

It's gonna be on a day when it's beautiful out.

So I forced myself to work all day Monday, and Tuesday afternoon came, and I'm I'm gonna go, I'm gonna go play some golf.

I I just I'm I'm I'm giving myself uh the afternoon off.

Hope that's okay with y'all.

So I gave myself the afternoon, I talked to my boss, and he said, okay.

Um and so so I go to a legacy golf course off Windy Hill Road.

It's like 20 bucks to walk 18 holes.

But some of y'all don't play golf.

What that means is this course is not really nice, okay?

But I don't care.

I just want to spend a little bit of money and I wanted to be outside.

And so I spend the 20 bucks, and I I I'm I'm walking and I'm I'm just I'm outside, it's a beautiful day, and I'm not thinking about anything.

I just I'm I'm just vacating, right?

And and I'm picking up on the fact that this course is a$20 for 18 hole course.

I'm picking up on that because there's not a lot of grass, there's a lot of weeds, you know, so you're hunting for grass.

Can I find grass?

You know, the greens are bumpy, there's stuff all over them.

I mean, it's kind of muddy, you have a sand trap, it's not always just sand, there's all sorts of stuff in it, you know.

It's messy, things aren't taken care of.

I don't care.

I don't really care that much.

A couple fairways, there's just a hole.

There's a hole in one fairway, just a hole, just you know, just a dugout big hole.

Couldn't figure that out.

Um, I don't really care though.

It's pretty day, still pretty coarse.

You know, I'm outside, having a great time.

So I walk the front to the front nine, on the back nine, uh, a couple of guys are teeing off on the tee, and they say, hey, you want to you want to hop in?

So I hop in with this guy.

His name is Paxton, he's a great guy, and so I hop in the cart with him, and we start riding, and and he he starts pointing out all the stuff on the course that's not great.

And I've been aware of this the whole time.

And he's saying stuff like, own the owners just don't take care of this place.

And he's right.

I mean, he's right.

He's a they they he's like, they can't handle this place.

Owners can't handle this place, it's a mess, you know.

Um and and the thing is he's saying, you know, if you look at the land, this place could be really pretty, you know.

They just, he's saying they just don't have the resources to pull it off.

And he was right.

That the the their course could actually be really pretty.

I mean, but if they had the resources to pull it off, it's just that things, messes are overlooked, things aren't taken care of.

They just don't have the resources.

That was Tuesday.

Friday morning, I I walk through the gates of Augusta National Golf Course.

This is a little tournament called the Masters that's going on right now.

Some of you don't care.

Um, it's it's sort of a big deal to some people.

And I I I walk in and it is uh it's perfection, is what it is.

Every detail has been thought of.

I mean, every blade of grass has been analyzed and groomed, every pine needle, it's got all the pine needles all pointed in the same direction.

And so Christy and I, we walk around and we sit at a couple holes and we go to the concession stand, we walk through the concession stand, and all the food's cheap, makes you even happier.

I mean, we just load up for like$11.

We had like a like a ton of food, we couldn't hold it all, and we go and we lay on this hill and we we eat our lunch, and then we go, we we go by the bathroom.

I mean, there was a guy, and I'm not sure how I feel about it, there's a guy who opened the stall door for me.

I don't think I need that level of detail and service.

He was like, here you go, sir.

I'm like, like, take the day off.

I can open the stall door, but is that amount of detail and perfection?

The owners are on it.

I mean, there's like 150 land crew, like the landscaping crew that morning, 150 guys are on the course that morning getting it just perfect.

I mean, the owners are on it, and we love it.

We love it.

Here's why we love it.

There's no cell phones, there's no cameras, there's no company logos.

I mean, what they've done is they've created, it's not, it's not even about golf at this point, it's about an experience of rest.

You imagine being in a place where you're not even allowed to take your phone?

Isn't that wonderful?

No urge to take a picture, no urge to check something.

And if you if you take out your phone, you get in trouble.

So it has to be in the car, no cameras, no, not inundated with with advertising and messages, so to just a place where you can rest and then everything is perfect.

Everything's taken care of.

No, there's no messes, no frustration.

I mean, it's a it's a piece of a piece of heaven, right?

I mean, uh that's what I'm describing.

And they have the resources to to make it happen.

Here's here's my point.

My point is when we're the owners of our own lives, we don't have the resources.

We don't have the resources to to heal the wounds, to deal with the messes, to deal with the frustrations, to deal with the fear, to deal with the anxiety.

We don't have the resources.

We we need outside resources, we need an outside love.

We need a new owner.

We need a new king over our heart.

Verse 16.

At first his disciples did not understand all this.

They wouldn't understand what I just said.

Not at this point.

They didn't understand this triumphal entry.

Jesus on a donkey, what's going on?

Only after Jesus was glorified did they realize that these things had been written about him and that these things had been done to him.

Now the crowd that was with him when he called Lazarus from the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to spread the word.

Many people, because they had heard that he had performed the sign this sign, they went out to meet him.

So the Pharisees said to one another, see, this is getting us nowhere.

Look how the whole world has gone after him.

So the Pharisees are getting even more fed up.

They're like, We're going to end this.

And see, this was the beginning.

The disciples didn't get it, that this is a this is a triumphal entry, a parade, is a death march.

Five days from then, that he would be sacrificing himself.

And Luke says that Jesus wept.

Luke's account of this whole story.

Luke says Jesus wept when this was going on.

So remember Jesus wept with Mary.

Now he's weeping for Jerusalem.

So he's seeing all these people m not understand him.

Right?

So if you've ever been misunderstood, your your wife doesn't understand, your spouse doesn't, your girlfriend, your boyfriend, a friend, or you know, the world doesn't understand you.

Have you ever been misunderstood?

Jesus knows exactly how you're feeling because the whole world, he's been preaching, he's been doing stuff, and they don't understand him.

They don't get it.

Imagine the frustration that could be built up.

This is usually when we cry for ourselves.

This is when we're just crying for ourselves.

And Jesus in this way, he's crying for them because they don't understand the good that he is bringing them.

See, they're looking for a king and a deliverer.

But they don't understand it's the it's the lamb selection day.

They don't understand that he's the lamb, the final lamb.

Nothing else to add after he is sacrificed.

See, he's he's not riding into your heart and your life to berate you, to rule you with a with a fist, to have a guilt trip over you.

He parades in to love you as a sacrificial lamb.

He comes in to rule you with love.

The love of grace and the love of truth.

Most of us, just honest, most of us feel like our lives are kind of like legacy golf course, 20 buck course.

It's kind of pretty, it's nice, it works.

A lot of messes, a lot of frustration.

I mean, none of us feel like our lives are Augustine National.

It's actually why we want to go there and look around, because we just feel like just maybe if I'm here long enough, maybe my my heart will feel like this grasp of the manicuredness of this place.

And so when when we when we feel cheap, uh we run to escape, you know, just to fill the void.

Or we run to religion, like I'll just do enough, I'll get better.

But but the reality, we don't have the resources.

We don't have the resources.

We have to have resources from outside of ourselves.

This is what the gospel is about.

A love from outside of ourselves.

We're never gonna be Augusta National.

Your life will never be Augusta National, my life will never be Augusta National, it will never be that perfect.

But there is a love that covers all of the mess, all of the frustration, and makes you right with God even when you're messy.

We need a power from outside of ourselves, and this is what the cross is about.

This is the triumphal entry.

Open the gates of your heart wide to the humble king, that he'll reign over your hearts.

Let's pray together.

God, we confess first off, we love, we love to be kings and queens of our own hearts.

To humble ourselves and to confess our need, and to receive from you our righteousness, and to receive from you our importance, and to receive from you our validation, to receive from you uh peace in the midst of anxiety, boldness in the midst of fear.

It's very difficult for us.

We confess this.

We love to be our own deliverer, and then we we'd love to make you out to be some sort of deliverer you're not.

And we confess this.

We confess that we have yelled out Hosanna and and not understood uh what we're even saying.

But thank you that you come to solve the real need we have, to relieve a heart that is burdened with sin, guilt, shame, andadequacy.

And that you love us.

And you sacrifice yourself on the cross for us to help us to trust you in greater and greater ways.

Amen.