The Unexpected Symbol of Freedom (Palm Sunday)

​ Joshua Kehler: john chapter 12.

John 12 · chapter mention

we're stepping out of Ephesians, as you guys might anticipate for

Palm Sunday and Easter next week.

Yes.

We'll be back there soon, finishing things up.

And we're close.

John chapter 12, we're gonna look at verse 12 to 19,

John 12 · chapter mention

the next day.

The large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem.

So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out.

Hosanna blessed his, he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel.

And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it just as is written.

Fear, not daughter of Zion.

Behold, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey's, col.

His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus

was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written

about him and had been done to him.

The crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus out of

the tomb and raised him from the dead, continued to bear witness.

The reason why the crowd went to meet him was that they heard

that he had done this sign.

So the Pharisees said to one another.

that you are gaining nothing.

Look,

the world has gone after him.

This is the word of the Lord.

Holy Lord say to God.

Yes.

Amen.

Father, we thank you for your word this morning.

Yep.

And God just reveal your truth.

Here's a story that we're familiar with, but I wasn't.

In a lot of ways.

And, so Lord, once again, holy Spirit, lift up King Jesus.

Oh really?

The King of kings and the Lord of Lords.

The Prince of peace over every situation.

Over, over everything in our lives right now, Lord.

Lord bless this time and.

in your name.

Amen.

Amen.

a pastor, I used to work with Mark Thompson, he told a true story of when

he was, going to a job interview for a nonprofit, somebody who doesn't make a

profit but is there and they exist to help other people on his way to the job

he had parked, found a parking spot.

And he parked along a park.

and in this park he noticed that there was smoke and, the smoke drew's attention.

And then he noticed that there was a man in this park, a homeless man.

On fire.

Oh.

And, his friend tried to put, they're both drunk.

One of 'em had caught on fire getting too close to the barbecue or whatever

they were cooking and caught his clothes.

And then someone, his friend tried to pour liquor on him to

put it out and made it worse.

And so he looks around and people are watching it, but nobody's doing anything.

And this guy's.

Burning and his friend is too drunk to figure out what to do.

And so Mark goes over in a suit, he's going to a job interview, and

he takes his jacket off and he begins to put this guy out, this guy who's

on fire with his suit jacket, and.

Glaze on him and covers him and puts the fire out and, calls, calls 9 1 1.

And, they come and take him away to treat his burns and stuff like that.

it's time to get to his interview.

He isn't time to go home.

And so he goes into the interview, he puts a suit back on and he smells like alcohol

and smoke and fire and it looks terrible.

And, oh God.

And it's the first thing the interview says is, what in

the world does that smell?

And and he tells her to the story.

I said, I'm sorry I didn't have time to go home.

And she looks at him and stops the interview and she said,

you should have gone home.

And changed.

And that was the takeaway.

And he was like, not sure I wanna work for a non-profit.

He was like, Not in the business of rescuing people.

It's such a illustration of the two kingdoms you've got.

One kingdom that's just lost.

That's like the two guys who are like trying to survive and they're on fire.

You've got people looking around and just, it's become a spectacle to them.

At least it's not me.

maybe somebody will help them.

Hopefully somebody helps them.

So maybe somebody will do something.

And then you have those who look like they've got it together.

Who are the ones who have been set up an organization to be helped?

Up.

But again, they look and they look down on the situation and say, now that

doesn't fit our type that's beneath us.

You should have, done something that you should have presented yourself in

a better way than actually rescuing somebody from burning to death.

I just never got over to that story.

Oh really?

Of here he is and he's putting this out.

He's getting the smell on him.

He's going low.

He's on the ground with this guy, getting the smell of it on him and, getting the

dirt and the mud and rescuing this person.

And, and then being told that's not the business we're in.

but that is the business we're in.

That is the business we're in.

The cross is something incredible.

We're gonna talk about symbols, in a second, but the cross is, something

that is universal to Christianity now, it's something we wear on a cross.

We get an earring, we get a tattoo, and it means something to us.

we put it on our car to identify who we are, or, we, when we used to have yellow

pages and you con, contractor, you'd put, a cross or an ictu or something,

it was this, it's this symbol of Hey, I'm a Christian kind of a thing.

But the cross wasn't adopted by the Christian Church until after they

had outlawed crucifixion because it was such a horrific symbol.

It was so offensive.

The cross, the early church didn't even use it as a symbol

until after it was outlawed.

It was so gruesome.

We get our word excruciating from that idea of crucifixion.

It was obscene, it was horrific.

It was terrible.

It was, It was beneath the common man.

crucifixion was so insane that if a woman, which was rare, was ever crucified, she

was crucified facing the cross because they would not want to look on a woman's

face in that much agony and pain.

And so they would face her to the wood, to the beam, and they would crucify her

so they wouldn't have to look upon it.

The cross was offensive.

It was terrible.

It was a stumbling block and to say, That our savior, our Lord, went to the cross.

That was a stumbling block in those first couple centuries for

people hearing about the gospel.

So I want, I, I want to talk about that because I think it's very

interesting that the people hold palm branches and they wave palm branches

as Jesus is coming in, and I want to talk about what that symbol is and.

A different kind of symbol for the kingdom that we're actually a part of.

very briefly, and I'm trying to be, more brief having to edit these sermons.

Holy moly.

plus I've really thought.

And I really want to emphasize that as we're all together,

we're all participating in the Lord's Supper together, I really

want that to be the centerpiece.

because someone once said, they said, how was the sermon?

And I was like, it was okay.

But Jesus showed up at the table.

He's always good at the table, And, and I wanna look at the setting.

The symbols and the scripture, the setting.

So Jesus is proclaiming in the boldest and clearest way that he is the Messiah

king that Israel has been looking for.

Up to that point, it had been called veiled disclosure, right?

You remember when he's saving.

I always got thrown off when I heard the story of Jesus when he'd do a miracle,

and then he'd say, don't tell anybody.

And you're like, why does he say that?

That's so weird.

It doesn't make sense.

Jesus is bringing the kingdom in such a visible way through these miracles.

j Iris's daughter, remember she's raised from the dead.

He reaches down into the jaw of death and he pulls her up from the grave.

As she's back to life, every dead cell in her body ev the heart that had

stopped working, the blood that had begin to coagulate, everything reversed.

The curse of death reversed as he whispered into her ear.

Wake up little darling.

And then he commands them and it says, but don't tell anybody.

Because this is gonna set off a chain of events that we can't come back from.

This is gonna, this is gonna be the powder keg that if people find out

they're gonna grab me and they want to force me to be king, or they're,

the religious leaders are gonna come against it like we see here.

But now in the trammel entry, his face is set to Jerusalem.

He knows what the father's given him to do, and now he's declaring in the

boldest possible terms, no longer veiled.

That he is the king.

That they have been expecting that this is the day that the Lord has

made him riding in on a donkey.

Was the day foretold about this is the day that God has made.

This is the day to be rejoice and to be glad in it.

Because the king has come, the king has come, and the

king is making himself known.

So in the most explicit terms, Jesus is setting the powder keg into motion.

and it happens.

We'll see in this next week, it's called Holy Week and I want us to be in

scripture this week cuz it's been called the most important week in history.

from Sunday, Palm Sunday to Monday, to Tuesday, to Wednesday

to Thursday, to Good Friday, right?

And then silent Saturday at.

Called and then glorious Sunday Easter resurrection, where death is defeated,

where like the curse is reversed, where Satan sin and death have been thrown down.

this is it.

This is, we want to enter into, that participation in that

longing, in that remembering.

Of what, that church and that early church went through and

what this week represents.

But, so things are set in motion.

He's not telling anybody anymore.

Don't tell him what has happened, but that this is one

of the most provocative things.

And when you understand, the setting and the symbols that he uses, we

understand exactly what he was saying.

Now, Judah, and Israel under the control of Rome, we know that, right?

We've read the gospels.

They're not free, they're not independent, they're not their own nation.

They pay taxes to robe.

They're.

They're occupied by Rome.

They're forced to do Rome's bidding.

they don't have a king.

They can't, decide the laws for themselves.

They are oppressed, by Rome.

And there's an uneasy piece that they try to maintain through the years

with the different rulers and the religious leaders are always trying to

maintain that peace and to keep power.

Is under Jerusalem's, Israel's under the control of the Romans.

one of the symbols of that, rule was the Antonio Fortress

that was built just after 63 bc.

It was built north of the temple.

And one of the towers of the fortress was higher than the temple

courts, so that even as you were worshiping as a Jew, you'd always

look and you would see Rome watching.

You were never free.

Not even in your Temple.

Rome was watching.

They were watching every movie you did.

It was Big Brother.

They were watching everything you did.

they were, scrutinizing everything.

And you weren't free even to worship in your temple.

They were not independent.

The prefect was ponchos pilot.

there was some tension between them.

The face of he was the face of Rome and Judea.

He was the one to collect taxes and to put down any rebellions,

and he did so at times, violently.

And that was Rome's way, was they, if you were, brutal and violent.

Then perhaps people wouldn't do it.

That's why they introduced Crucifixion.

The Romans introduced crucifixion.

It was such a horrific way to die.

It took days a lot of the time to die, and in the most excruciating

way, they would say, this will keep down people from re rebelling.

if this is what you get for rebellion, if it's not just going to jail

for a couple years, if it's not just paying a fine, if it's this

end, then it will stop that, but.

People are funny and people will rebel against oppression because it's in

us that we were created to be free.

like you see that all over the world, especially as we're

connected by the internet.

people who live in oppressive regimes and they're throwing off these symbols

of oppression and they're losing their lives just for the simplicity

of wanting to learn in a school.

they're losing their lives.

They're protesting because they, there's something in ain't as an

image bearer of God to be free and not to be under that oppression.

And so the Jews have this expectation of independence and they've tied that

expectation of independence to the Messiah, that Messianic figure, who they

thought would come and set them free.

From Rome, from the oppressor.

Now there were three groups of Jews, and that's, of course, it's

way more complicated than that.

And that's a character in a summary.

But there were those on the left and they got along with the Romans.

They were, more friendly.

They tried to get along.

They said, this is the way that we move forward.

We move forward in this uneasy piece.

They were the heists.

They were the ones who even adopted Roman ways into their lives.

And then you had the middle of the road where, they could go either way.

but then you had the zealots on the right and the zealots were like,

We will lose our lives, we will spend ourselves, to overthrow this

impression even if we're outnumbered.

And that's literally what happens in 78 D.

It's the zealot that rise up against Rome, and Rome puts it down.

The destruction of the temple happens.

and the, the Jews are spread throughout the world, after that

event of being nearly wiped, out.

And so there's these three groups, but every group, even the ones on

the left, Especially the ones on the right and the ones in the middle have

this Messianic expectation in them that someone's gonna come one day

and someone's gonna liberate them.

That they'll be another Moses who walks up into Pharaoh's

court and says, let my people go.

And it, the stories told, to the kids of the rod turning into a snake, the

Nile turning into blood, the locust and the frogs and the darkness.

And as they're celebrating now Passover, where the angel of the Lord comes into

Israel and Egypt, and the firstborn of every family that's not covered by

the blood of the lamb dies that night.

And that is the final thing to allow Moses to release.

So there's this expectation as Passovers taking place.

There's this miracle worker.

There's this one who prepared the way, John, who's saying he's

the one we've been looking for.

I'm not even worthy to loosen his sandals, who, when he baptizes them,

there's a voice from heaven who says, this is my beloved son, and

whom I'm well pleased, the spirit descending like a dove onto him.

John saying to the crowd, I must decrease so that he may increase, go follow him.

So this expectation, and then all of a sudden there's this miracle worker,

and he's different than anybody's ever imagined because what's his first miracle?

But to, at a wedding, make an okay party into a great party

by turning water into wine.

But then lepers who has to be healed,

are set free.

Their skin made like the flesh of a baby,

a morning widow who has no future prospects for herself and can only follow

through and see the burial ver sun.

Jesus interrupts a funeral and gives the son back to his mom telling us that one

day, like that's what he is gonna do.

We'll all have funerals, but he's gonna come and he's gonna

interrupt him at some point,

and he's gonna give us back to our loved ones, to one another.

So Jesus comes onto the scene and there's none like him.

He speaks with this authority and this power, but he's so different

because he's, the religious leaders don't want anything to do with him.

He eats on the Sabbath.

He tells his disciples to eat on the sth.

We can't do that.

They thought,

and he says stuff like, we'll have Lord of the Sabbath.

I wrote the law.

I'm the one who decides.

So Jesus comes and he lays out this kingdom that's so different.

They can't, people can't wrap their minds around.

One of the most fascinating things when you read the gospels is how much the

disciples who are with Jesus for three years are like, oh, that's so brilliant.

Amazing.

Jesus.

Hey, can we have a word with you?

What in the world are you talking about?

It's so otherworldly, this upside down kingdom that's not about revenge and

retaliation, but loving your enemies and asking God's blessing on them.

That's motivated and the foundation for is forgiveness and mercy and justice.

So strange.

so there's this expectation, but people are like, I'm not sure this is the one.

I'm not sure this is the guy.

So there's this expectation, there's these groups of people

Passovers about to happen.

It's Passover week.

you can just feel it in the air.

You can feel the electricity, you can feel the tension, I don't know if you've

ever been somewhere where things are tense and something falls off a counter

or something and everybody's jumps.

That's what it's like.

It's electric.

And then he gives us these symbols, these powerful symbols.

Symbols are a powerful thing, especially for groups of people.

there are non-powerful symbols like riding in an outhouse at work.

And marking your territory.

Joe was here.

Not a powerful symbol.

I don't know.

I can't comprehend.

Sometimes I take pictures of outhouse graffiti cuz I'm just

like, somebody needs a catalog.

This who writes this?

And I always I'm like, maybe it's him, I'm like, does he write the, it's so random.

This stuff.

Oh, graffiti marking your territory, stuff like that.

there's these.

There's these symbols that like we're drawn to, to unite us.

and some of them are powerful to people, some aren't.

But then you take something like a national flag and you think of

something like how uniting that is.

To a country, to a group of citizens, what it means and how

uniting it is to, see that thing.

you've got that famous picture in World War II on Iwa Jima, Where

the flag, the soldiers are and whether it was staged or whatever.

but it's, there's something to that picture where they're battling, through,

mud, dirt, bullets and hail and hell.

But they're getting a flag.

Like it's that symbol.

We're all gonna run, we're all gonna unite to this.

Why do I bring that up?

Because what's interesting is that the poron was a symbol that the Jewish

people had for independence, but it was not tied to the Passover feast.

The Palm Frons were actually used in a feast during the fall.

so it's weird unless we dig into the history a little bit.

During the Maccabean Rebellion, that's when you know the Bible goes silent.

Our Old Testament, this is in the apocrypha, but it's still history.

it's a story about a rebellion that happened against oppression where a

group of Jews, a priest in his four sons rebelled against the structure

of evil, the structure of oppression, and they actually threw fighting.

Through violence, through overflow, brought peace to the

land of Israel for about a hundred years, 80 to a hundred years.

So here's where that idea comes from.

A priest by the name of, Mathias, he and his four sons leading a war,

that led for about a hundred years of freedom and independence, from the

rulers, the oppressors of their day.

140 bc One of those four brothers by the name of Simon held out

when the enemy was attacking.

He and the small group of people rebel.

It's an amazing story of, I don't know why they haven't made it into a movie,

of it's kinda like the whole 300.

It's this, the few against the many and them holding out and winning through

just sheer resilience through the sheer, God, working, In 140 BC the, Simon

held out when Simon entered now free Jerusalem, as he wrote in as a champion.

As one who had won the victory and had won the battle.

The Jews entered it and welcomed him into their new freely, set free

Jerusalem with praise and palm branches.

So they held home branches and they praised God for the.

Independence that the oppressor had been overthrown.

we see that this actually, this image of the Palm Branch actually stuck with

the Jewish people because you jump ahead and fast forward a few decades.

And in that great Jewish revolt that I, mentioned briefly from 66 ad to

70 AD when the temple finally fell, when they actually lost, there was

a period of time in those four years where the religious leaders minted

coins that they would use as money.

During that time, it was a fraction of a shackle.

and the symbol on the shackle was a palm branch.

And so it was this universal symbol, that they had this expectation that

we will overthrow our oppressor.

It was like waving a national flag.

So it's interesting because you have, okay, the Simon Mathias son

and the McBeen Rebellion, him winning them, welcoming him in, and then you

have that expectation after Jesus.

That still waving the palm branches that we still need to be set free.

So you can get the mind of the people.

So they're waving palm branches, they're saying Hosanna, they have this

Messianic expectation, but they're expect is that God is providing

another Maccabees, another Simon.

To overthrow violently.

The Roman oppressors.

And so there's that expectation.

He's here, he's gonna ride in and he's gonna, go to town.

He's gonna destroy, he's going to, all his miracles thus

far have been helping people.

Even like Roman centurions.

What's that about?

We won't talk about that one.

But now maybe he'll unleash Elijah of old or Elijah of old calling fire

down to consume the enemy, right?

And even Jesus' disciples, said, Jesus, call fire down on him.

you're a greater prophet than them, burn 'em up.

they talked bad about us, just called down fire from him.

and Jesus is communicating my.

I have a totally different plan and a totally different kingdom.

The fire's gonna come, James and John, these sons of thunder.

Oh, the fire's coming, but it's gonna fall on me.

It's gonna fall on me so that any can come.

Messianic expectation, the weaving of the Palm Frans, palm branches weren't

associated with Passover, and this is the Passover week, but the fall

festival, Jesus is writing into a city full of people and many of these people

would be fired up for independence.

A desire to ba break free from domination.

Jesus is fame is spreading because of the raising of Lazarus, which we see.

The crowd is there because they heard about the sign Lazarus

has been risen from the dead.

says in our text like, Hey, we're here.

This guy raised the dead.

This is the wine.

Okay, finally, here we are.

Let's wave the palm branches.

let's get free

the donkey.

in one Kings chapter one, verse 32, king David is old and king.

David's going to decide who's gonna take over ruling and

he says Solomon's gonna rule.

Solomon's gonna be the one to take over the throne of David.

He's gonna be the son of David.

That rules King David said.

Call me the priest, Nathan, the prophet, and Benny High, the son of Jehovah.

And they came before the king and the king said to them, take with you the servants

of your Lord and have saloon, my son.

Ride on my own mule and bring him down to GUI and let Zak the priest

and Nathan the prophet there, anoint him king over Israel, then blow the

trumpet and say, long live King Solomon.

And so not only is it as we'll get into, is it a humble way to come

in as a king, but it also was the kingly way to come in as a king.

You remember that Jesus is the promised son of David, that

he's the one who's going to.

Sit on the throne and rule forever.

You remember when, David says to he says, I want to build the Lord a house, right?

And then, and then God tells him through the prophet, I'm gonna

build you a house and I'm gonna establish your throne forever.

So one of the reasons that the Jewish people held their, genealogies up

so much that and kept such track of them, is cuz they believed that in

the line of David, there would be one who comes to sit on the throne again.

And so there was this expectation not only of a Messiah who would overthrow the

Roman oppressors, but that there would be a king to come and rule in a way in which

David did and David failed at it greatly.

So there's this hope that maybe one day we'll get a king that doesn't fail

because Solomon becomes king and Solomon.

And his sons, the Nation of Israel split.

And then you guys read First Kings and Second Kings and First

Chronicles and Second Chronicles.

It's an am it's amazing, but it's a hard read because you're like, and this king

did what was evil on the side of the Lord, and this king did what was evil on inside.

And you're like, wow.

And then all of a sudden it's like being under water and holding your

breath and then coming up for a breath.

It says, And this king did what was right in the side of the Lord.

You're like, yes, we're on track.

We're back.

Let's go.

And then usually he like ruins it at the end of his life or something.

The King Isiah, who's I can go in the temple, And, he gets a leprosy.

and so over and over you see the failure of bad kings, but really what the Old

Testament tells us, As of the failure of even the good kings and that there

was a long internet expectation that a good king would come one day, and that

this good king would sit on the throne of David forever, and that he would rule

and he would reign and righteousness and that he wouldn't be the one, who.

Counts the people, because of pride.

He wouldn't be the one who looks at Bathsheba with lust and murders.

one of his confidant and fellow soldiers, like he would rule

and reign in righteousness.

So there people know because they know the story of the Bible, that when

Jesus rolls in on a donkey, what he's saying, That he's coming in to Jerusalem

as the king, as the son of David.

again, second Samuel, chapter seven.

That's where it says that God will, establish a seed that he'll,

establish a house for David forever.

Jesus.

Writing upon the donkey was like writing upon David's throne,

the scripture, Psalm one 18.

That was read so beautifully this morning from Psalm one 13 to Psalm one 18.

These songs would be sung during the Feast of Passover.

During these this festival week in Psalm one 18, you have that amazing

verse there that says, save us Lord.

hosanna, literally Jesus' name is saved now.

That's what his name means.

And so they're literally saying, be true to your name.

Save now, like Hosanna, like save now is what they are crying out

for and what a beautiful thing is.

They have no idea even what they're asking for,

but he's answering their prayer.

Save now.

Such limited understanding.

They had this like narrow band of here's our problem.

Go rescue us.

Make this problem better.

save us down.

We're in a dire situation.

The boot is on our neck.

Save now, not next week, not, two weeks from now.

Not next year, not some next generation.

Now's the time to save.

And Jesus is answering that prayer.

It's so amazing.

You go back to the birth narrative, you shall call his name Jesus, right?

For he shall save his people from there sin.

So they're calling out.

Jesus is a direct answer to that prayer.

I, there's a lot of application here that we can talk about maybe in a minute, but

yeah, let's talk about it in a minute.

Zacharia chapter nine, verse nine and 10.

Rejoice greatly.

A daughter of Zion, shout loud, O daughter of Jerusalem.

Behold, your king is coming to you righteous and having salvation as he.

So this is what John recognized as the fulfillment of Jesus

coming in writing on a donkey.

Let me read that again, reg, because.

Because this is just as much for us as it was for them.

Rejoice greatly, o daughter of Zion shall allowed O daughter of Jerusalem.

Behold, your king is coming to you.

Righteous, not compromised.

Not a bad king, not a moderate king, not an okay king.

Righteous.

And having salvation,

humble and mounted on a donkey, on a cult, the full of a donkey, I will cut

off the chariot from Efrim and the war horse from Jerusalem, and the battle Bo

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 ends of the earth.

What a beautiful scripture.

And here it is in front of him.

They know that scripture.

That would, John, that's what he thinks about actually, John's

actually we, after he was glorified, we like put this together.

I love it.

They're so honest.

But here John's looking back on this and he is oh,

oh, he's doing something much bigger.

Oh, he's putting away as War Bo and the warhorse.

Because he's coming to bring peace.

He's coming with salvation.

He's coming to establish a rule and a reign that extends to the

far reaches this earth and impacts every single molecule of creation.

This week isn't just about.

Fire insurance or yeah, heaven and hell in the future.

This week is about God reversing the curse through the person of Jesus.

By becoming the curse.

He's undoing everything broken, everything wrong, everything crooked.

He is the guarantee of it.

How?

What's the guarantee that he rose from the grave?

The guarantee that the curse is reversing.

And then he gives us the spirit to come inside the church and

he begins to heal relationships where we would be natural enemies.

We wouldn't get along different, the three groups, we've got 50 groups in America.

it's complicated.

Look at, all the division and all the separation and the

tension that's in the room.

And Jesus comes in and he says, guess what?

That person who used you and stabbed you in the back has been covered by my blood

and is now your blood brought Brother.

I'm not sure I understand.

I don't either.

It's Grace.

That's what my daughter said.

She said so funny.

It was so great.

We were talking in and she said, I don't understand.

You mean God wants me to love somebody that has hurt me.

Yeah.

And I said, yeah.

And I said, it's hard.

And she said, I don't think I can do it.

And I said, perfect.

Because if you could, you wouldn't need Jesus right to rescue you.

And this would be another religion and there wouldn't be

anything supernatural about it.

Loving people and the way God has called us to you takes literally the spirit

of God coming into our lives and making much of Jesus in our hearts so that.

That's all that matters.

And then he moves through us.

I wonder, like I don't wanna limit our vision for what God can do.

And I'm not saying, we're gonna go, split the delta in too and walk over.

I'm not talking about that, but what I'm talking about.

There's a lot, not a lot of nonprofits doing good in this city, and we can

join them and we should join them, but I don't wanna lose sight of that.

We belong to a supernatural movement of the spirit of God in this city.

That raises the dead cold hearts that are reborn and rebirth.

Jeff's at work who the spirit of God awakens them brothers who are

baptized and come to Christ like the most unexpected time in ways

that is what we operate in that is the environment that we can't just.

I don't know, lose sight of that.

God has commissioned us and called us to go and to preach and to unleash

the lion of the gospel of grace.

So much of the time, we're trying to be convincing.

We're trying to be cunning, and we do, we feel like we're not equipped

enough, like we don't know enough, the religious leaders, after they interviewed

the disciples, they said, man, one thing we know, they're not very smart.

They're fishermen.

They don't know much, but they've been with Jesus, and there's

a power there that we cannot comprehend and we cannot diminish.

These are turning the world upside down through enemy love through, because I was

God's enemy through a forgiveness That's.

Otherworldly, you can work for 20 years with a therapist and we should,

cuz that is a God-given gift to have people in our lives to work.

But we can work for 20 years and having a warm feeling towards

somebody who's wronged us.

Or you can have the resurrected Christ in dwelling you, who gives

you a vision of your sinfulness.

Yes.

And your lostness that you see the debt that you owed.

And so you're not throwing your fellow saint in prison because at 20 bucks

when you owed an infinite amount, you go the grace I've been shown.

How could I not give grace?

this is supernatural, resurrected Jesus Kind of like.

Easter stuff that we gotta be operating in.

This is the environment, this is the atmosphere, the power of his resurrection

and the fellowship of his sufferings.

Because man, that's how we walk through this broken world as we.

Experience the brokenness that of this world, so much of the treasure that God is

as revealed and that we do not leave him.

We do not forsake him because he'll never leave or forsake us, but

that he's our truly true treasure.

That he's the pearl and the field, that we do anything to get

him, and that there's no cost.

He couldn't call us to.

Like this is life and more abundantly not having, a better marriage.

Great.

That's a byproduct.

Not having this habit taken care of.

This is the resurrected life that he's calling us to.

To walk with the living God, the unco.

Cause the infinite one who says, I want you to be my home.

I'm gonna indwell you myself.

I wanna make this church my body.

I want to be the head, but I am going to make the church the bo like crazy stuff.

The kings come,

the king of Kings and the Lord of Lords.

Who He's coming again,

but the king is come.

They're summon our movement and there brothers and sisters, and

we'll be worshiping in heaven, but think that more people will come

to Jesus if we make 'em popular.

Or digestible, or appealing, or, he's always gonna be because

he is an authority, because he's a king, he's always gonna

threaten other people's authority.

He's always gonna threaten other power structures with his power structure.

who's I was talking to, one of my kids and just saying that's

what it all comes down to.

Literally it comes down to crown him or crucify him.

It comes down to we don't like an authority over us.

We want to be the masters of our own fate.

We want to be the captains of own fate.

Even when we get when, okay, let me just make it about me.

When I got into Christianity, I love Jesus.

I couldn't believe he saved me.

down the line.

I was like, I can't believe you saved me.

Yeah.

First I was like, yeah, I can't believe you saved me, but I gave Jesus my agenda.

Here's God, awesome.

You're amazing.

Here's what I'm gonna do for you.

I'm really doing it for myself.

I want to be known.

I want to be used so that other people see my, it's all about me.

Like I look back, it still is terribly, I literally analyze,

I'm like, why am I doing this?

Is it still about me?

am I still, I'm like, gut Gollum inside me.

Just ah, my bra is just comes out, And just wants the glory.

It's like that prayer.

Ah, I need it.

You guys were in the scene and Lord of the Rings where Bilbo, when he's old,

he sees the ring and he is he's old.

He's oh, can I see it and everything.

And he's you better not, he's give it to me.

You're like,

that's me.

I'm like, oh Lord, you're working amazing.

Give it to me.

I'm like, just like I, I want it.

let's wrap up.

but that's so true.

Guys, so this passage is about a king coming and a king not

meeting the expectations of the people that he was coming to.

And the symbol of freedom is not in the poron, but is in the offensive symbol

of the cross because God would rescue us

by losing.

By going and dying a death as a criminal.

Do you understand?

We follow.

Our founder was killed as a criminal and executed, but it changed the world because

this kingdom is not of this world that he comes lowly and so all through, I just.

the cruciform life, this cross life that, that I may be conformed to.

His death is a verse that Paul's put this one on your calendar, is that all

of our life, the symbol over all of our life as a Christian is that cross.

Cross.

It's also the empty tomb.

They go hand in hand.

You need both.

Yeah, you really need both.

It's not just all victory and it's not death that ends in defeat, but it is

brokenness that leads to resurrection.

Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone.

But if it dies, it bears much fruit.

what does Jesus say?

Do you want to find your life?

Then lose it.

For my sake, guys, that is the cruciform life.

That is the cross.

So our symbol, as tempting as it is in this political age, to

wave Palm Frans and to look for independence, whatever it is that we

fear that is happening in this world.

I do it.

I look to, to tech people, I look to technology, or I look to this leader,

I look to that leader to lead me out of whatever I think the oppression is

today as a reminder that the symbol for Christianity is not the palm fron that

overthrows oppression with violence.

But as the cross that defeated Satan sin and death, the giants that we

could never defeat once and for all through death and resurrection,

like that is what he calls us into.

That's the kingdom that he talks about.

That's the, if, John even, he's if, if, somebody asks you to go a mile, go too.

Not try to weasel out and get out of the mild, do 50 per or that I,

you can't command me to do that.

That it says do not be overcome with evil, but overcome evil with good.

we are part of a totally different kingdom than the kingdom of this

world and the people were expecting another rescue or another messiah.

That would come and conquer through violence.

Even his own disciples.

Peter pulls out his sword in the garden and says, now it's time.

now it's time to go to work.

Now it's time to use the sword.

And Jesus put that away.

that's not what my kingdoms about.

And he goes, is the sacrifice, because what did we need a Passover?

How was the Exodus?

How did it happen?

And I end with this Passover.

How did, how was it?

Was it Moses?

What was the real necessary thing, and especially if you were a

firstborn child, because do you know the angel went through Israel?

He didn't just hit Egypt.

Yeah, because all of sin didn't fallen short of the glory of God.

Israel wasn't a special remnant that they didn't need the blood.

They just, oh, you're, you're the seat of Abraham.

You're good.

Oh, you were born a in a Christian family.

You're good.

No, they needed the blood of the innocent covered for them.

That was the true rescue that night.

And then, you know what?

God brought him into covenant community with them and there were miracles along

the way and the enemy was defeated.

But the rescue that Passover was all about was that judgment was coming

and it was coming in a specific location in a specific time and

was falling on that moment, and no one would escape any other way.

And I imagine myself being, I'm the first son of my dad.

I imagine myself being in that room and what I would feel as from one end of the

land, you start to hear screaming and you start to hear terror, and you start

to hear rejoicing and size of relief.

but Dad, there's things I haven't told you.

Are you sure?

Are you sure I'm gonna be safe?

Yes.

Because the innocent has died for the guilty and as the angel comes and sees the

blood, that judgment that we all deserve.

Passes over.

That's why it's called Passover and passes over because something

has been judged in its place.

That is the glory of the gospel because God doesn't water down his

holiness to get you into heaven.

He's holy.

He's the same yesterday, today, and forever.

And its holiness, burns bright.

It makes rocks, Trimble.

I've used a lot of heavy equipment.

Nothing makes rocks.

Trimble, it makes rocks, shake.

It makes rocks, Trimble.

It makes creatures that recreated to be in his presence.

They have to shield their faces with multiple wings because his glory and

his holiness burn so bright, and that just whatever passes through whatever

hits their wing, they have to respond.

Holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.

So that fire fell on him.

Yeah, we talked about the fire did fall, but it fell on him.

He said me for them.

Let that come onto me.

That's the cup that he drank.

That's what we're celebrating this week.

So I want to hear that scripture again, and I want this to be.

For us right now.

Rejoice greatly.

O Daughter of Zion.

Shout loud, O daughter of Jerusalem.

Behold, your king is coming to you.

You, he left the 99 to get you.

For some reason, he hunted high and low for you.

He tore up heaven and earth to have you.

He likes you.

He thought about you before you were even made.

He longed for the century to come along.

Isn't that crazy?

Yes.

And that page of history, he's I can't wait to get to this page,

cuz Amber's gonna be there.

I get to meet her.

She gets to meet me.

Like he,

he likes you a lot.

Your king is coming to you and he's righteous.

And he has salvation.

And as we talked about with the helmet of salvation, it's from beginning to end.

Behold, your king is coming to you and he's humble and mounted on a donkey.

The unco caused the power.

Full one, the alpha of the you Omega, the beginning and the end.

He says, I'm meek and humble of heart.

Come to me all yuhoo lay and our heavy laid, and for I will

give you rest for your souls.

My yoka is easy, my burden is light.

I'm gentle and lowly of heart.

Guys, you can come to him like boldly before the throne of grace,

like he knows that you're dust.

He knows that like in all points what it's like to be tempted cuz he

experienced it, but he didn't sin for us.

But he knows our frame, he knows our weakness.

He's a sympathetic high priest who's for us anyways.

Let me finish this first.

We'll be done.

Humble and mounted on a donkey, the full of a donkey.

I will cut off the chariot from e Rium and the warhorse from Jerusalem, and the

battle Bo shall be cut off and he shall seek peace or speak peace to the nations.

His rule shall be from sea to sea and from river to the ends of the earth.

The cross of the king, the new exodus, and then he commissions us as an ambassadors

to just take the good news to people, which is as difficult as taking really

good cold water to somebody who's thirsty.

Or taking, have you ever, maybe we'll make some bread sometime.

There's nothing better than.

Fresh baked bread that when you crack it, it steams.

And what do we get to do to somebody who's so hungry?

We get to give them the bread of life.

Like we get to be the ambassadors.

So the question is today, what's your symbol?

Is it a palm fron or is it the cross and the empty tomb?

Number two, Jesus is king overall, or he is not king at all.

like he doesn't.

He doesn't mince.

he's, he says the craziest hard things.

When I talk to people and they're like, oh, I like Jesus.

I say, no, you don't know him.

Then he's insane.

He demands that you worship him and give up everything he says.

Your love for him should be so strong that your love for your family

looks like hatred in comparison.

that's divisive.

Exactly.

But then you start to come to learn.

Oh, that's how I actually love my family is when I love him and

he loves me, and then I'm not using them and manipulating it.

He's brilliant.

He's wise.

He knows what he is talking about.

but he is king.

Is he king?

Like again, we don't say, come in Jesus.

Stay out Christ.

We take all of 'em.

And when he comes in, is King.

Is he the authority?

In your life and who he is as he's revealed in his word, is that authority,

not what's popular today, not what I feel not, this thing or this movement.

Is Jesus my authority?

Is he my future?

Is he my everything?

Like he claims?

He literally claims every space on our life.

He says all of it is mine, and then we flourish.

But, That's his claim on us.

Jesus the king, remember to be part of his kingdom means

there's a kingdom of the kingdom.

He doesn't need two kings.

And we're really bad at being kings, hence our testimonies.

Let me pray for us, and, just rejoice on this day.

Let's pray for celebration today.

I love in one of the gospels, their religious leaders were like, they

understood what was happening.

They're like, tell your disciples to shut up.

They just, tell the crowd to be quiet.

And Jesus said, if they'd be quiet, this Barry Stones would cry out.

Because this is the day that the Lord is made.

Because he's the lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world.

This is what it's all culminating to.

And so we just want to be in that mindset and the flow and

the rhythm of this week in that.

Let's pray.