Hail the King

Hey everyone, this is Josh from Encounter Church

Henley and thanks so much for tuning into our

podcast. Our prayer is that through this podcast,

you can have an encounter with Jesus that will

change your life. And now get ready for an inspiring

message from our preaching team. Who someone

is really matters. You know, early in our Henley

Church journey, I preached what I thought was

a pretty good sermon. I got decent feedback.

People said a lot of, yeah, great, great word

today. And Pastor Tech said, I think it really

landed really well. And then I get in the car.

Thank you. And I put my seatbelt on and I turned

to my lovely wife and I said, how'd you think

tonight went? She said, yeah, look, wasn't great,

was it? And I'd heard nothing but praise up until

that point, from people, from pastor techs, but

not my wife. I know that Ash will shoot it straight.

She doesn't care if it hurts her feelings. She

won't lie to me. And I so deeply cherish that.

And she's also an an accomplished and experienced

preacher in herself. And she understands the

craft well. She is good at it. She knows a good

sermon. And she's probably heard me preach the

most as well. So she probably knows what's great

from me and what's not great. Who she is really,

really matters. And it's because of who she is

that I have to take what seriously. Who she is

meant that I changed the way I saw my entire

sermon. Who someone is matters. If you're trying

to work out what you're going to do with your

life and your friend says, hey, man, I think

you should really become an accountant. You'd

probably go, yeah, OK, mate, you failed maths

in high school. What do you know? But if your

parents or a teacher sat you down and said, look,

we think you should consider this, you'd probably

take them a bit more seriously. You'd probably

at least consider it. Who someone is changes

how deeply you listen to them, how much you allow

them and their thoughts and their actions and

their opinions to shape your life sometimes we

get people wrong we pick a certain school because

our friend goes there only to find out it's a

terrible fit for us or a parent or a teacher

speaks something over our life that is actually

profoundly negative and it negatively shapes

our trajectory and how we see ourselves and over

time we may realize may I look back and realize

that the people that we were listening to the

people were allowing to shape us the voices that

we were following those people were maybe not

that helpful for us. We actually gave them far

too much sway over our lives. Sometimes we get

people wrong. It is Easter time and we are journeying

with Jesus to the cross and to His resurrection

in the Gospel of John in our series No Fear and

Death and what a great time of the year. This

week is the week, the reason why we do every

other week. This is the most important week.

This is a holy week. So I want to encourage you,

be in the room with us over Easter. Bring your

friends over Easter. Come and join in what is

our most sacred time of the year. Sometimes we

get people wrong. In our teaching text today,

there's a crowd of Judeans who have got Jesus

wrong. See the people of Judea, they've been

oppressed by the Romans for the last 100 years.

God has been silent for about 400 and they've

pretty much had a gutful at this point. They

long for the promised Messiah. They long for

an anointed King who will lead them out of foreign

pagan oppression like God led them out of Egypt

long ago. And when Jesus comes along, they start

to think that maybe he's a winner. Maybe maybe

he's someone to bet on when he feeds the 5 ,000

in John 6 they say surely Surely he is a prophet

that we have been expecting And it goes it says

when Jesus saw that they were ready to force

him to be their king he slipped away to the hills

by himself, so Like basically just starting and

they're like great. You're it. You're gonna be

the one And she's on my tongue So it's growing

and this growing belief in Jesus as the Messiah

reaches a fever pitch after he raises Lazarus

from the dead many people believe in him and

This is the tipping point as we learned last

week for the religious leaders decision to have

him killed here Jesus does Not what is easy,

but what is right? And the people here that Jesus

is heading down the road towards Jerusalem after

this And so they run out of the city and down

the road to meet him and they're waving palm

branches, sing a version of Psalm 118, but they

add this little consequential bit on the end.

Praise God, blessings on the one who comes in

the name of the Lord. Hail to the King of Israel.

And all of this means one thing. They want to

make Jesus their national political warrior king.

They want to make him a king. They think he's

going to lead an army to defeat the Romans and

bring peace to Judea. And what tells us that?

Well the palm branches they're a national symbol

of Judean independence. It's a symbol of the

Maccabean revolt that freed Israel and they cleansed

the temple from foreign oppression 200 years

before. So it's that and then they attack on,

hail the king of Israel to a war psalm. It's

not really that subtle really if you think about

it. And then there's the running out of the city

to meet Jesus and bring him in. See, leaving

a city to go out and meet a company who are coming

to that city and ushering them in, it's like

it's a classic triumphant entry. And the translations

that we have give us the heading, Jesus triumphant

entry. And what they're not saying is that, you

know, Jesus is sort of entering in a triumphant

manner. Well, he kind of is, but triumphant entries

are a thing. They're a thing. It's something

that's loaded with meaning at the time. You see

a triumphant entry a triumph was a Roman religious

custom You win a great victory you send messages

ahead and say we got him and you return home

and the people they come out of the city and

They greet you with great joy and they bring

you inside and you parade along the captured

enemy and stolen loot You see, the crowds have

actually turned Jesus' entry into Jerusalem into

a triumphant entry. It's a thing. And what it

is, is it sends a message. We're going to take

back Jerusalem. This is a rebellion against Rome.

We have a king. We're going to make Judea Yahweh's

again. So the crowds want Jesus to be their warrior

king, and in that, they get him wrong. Now he's

a king. And He will wage a war, but it's not

going to go down the way that they think it will.

They are seeing Jesus how they want to see Jesus,

not how Jesus actually is. Are we not all so

guilty of this at times? Trying to make Jesus

be who we want Him to be. Place our desires and

our expectations our intentions onto Jesus and

say Jesus. This is who I want you to be There

are a couple of classic ways we do this and I

had some fun thinking about this There's the

genie Jesus If I just do the right things in

the right ways, then you'll give me everything

I want right Jesus There's the cosmic butler

Jesus Jesus, I mean, if I don't have a certain

quality of life here, what are you even doing?

There's a helicopter parent, Jesus. Jesus, I

know that I jumped off the playground, but why

didn't you catch me? There's the personal assistant,

Jesus. Hey man, I'm working real hard for your

dad here. And if you could just work a bit harder

for me, that would be great. Or the echo chamber,

Jesus. Man, I'm so glad, Jesus, that you would

vote for my political party. completely aligned

with my theology and never disagree with me on

anything. These are some classic ways that we

place what we want onto Jesus. And there's probably

a multiverse of different ways that we try to

box Jesus, to limit him, to make him fit our

intentions and desires for him. And I'm sure

you can think of more, but all of this is just

an attempt to domesticate. Jesus, to make him

quote unquote safe, comfortable, never to encroach

on our lives, except in the way that we will

allow him to. Jesus who lives in the box in the

corner, we bring him out on weekends on Sundays

or on Christmas and Easter. You know, to domesticate

something is to take something that would otherwise

be a disruption or a challenge. and to strip

it of its power so that it can fit around our

lives how we want it to. If Jesus is like this,

domesticated, well then I never have to worry

about him challenging me, disagreeing with me,

asking me, asking anything at all of me. If Jesus

is like that, well then you don't have to change.

You don't have to grow. You don't have to invite

your friends to church. You don't have to give

God control of your finances or your time or

where you live. or your career or how you use

your body you don't have to care about the poor

you don't have to forgive you don't have to serve

you don't have to stay when things get hard you

don't have to love sacrificially you don't have

to surrender but Jesus actually isn't safe in

that regard Jesus as much as we may try to fit

him and stuff him in boxes we To try and keep

him out of, you know, we'll keep him in this

part of our lives, but we'll keep him out of

the rest of our lives. As much as we try to do

that, we actually can't do that. We actually

can't make Jesus fit around our lives like a

good lap dog, put him outside when he's being

a bit annoying. We actually can't strip him of

his power. However we may try, we cannot actually

domesticate Jesus. Who's read The Lion, the Witch

and the Wardrobe? Or watched the movie? Like

that counts. There's a classic scene in that

where Lucy is talking to Mr Beaver about Aslan.

He says, Aslan's a lion? Like she doesn't know

that Aslan's a lion. He goes, yeah, Aslan's a

lion, the lion, the great lion. Oh, said Susan,

I thought he was a man. Is he quite safe? I shall

feel rather nervous about meeting a lion. Safe,

said Mr. Beaver. Who said anything about safe?

Of course he isn't safe, but he's good. And he's

the king, I tell you. Just like you can't domesticate

a lion, you can't domesticate Jesus. See the

crowd, they try and place their intentions and

their desires upon Jesus. And sometimes we are

guilty of doing the same. But Jesus, even in

the midst of this passage that we have read today,

is subverting their intentions. He's showing

that he's actually untamable. In the middle of

this triumphant entry, so he's walking into the

city, everyone's making this fuss about welcoming

him, and he just stops mid -entry, and he goes

and finds a young donkey and a colt, and then

keeps going. He just breaks it up right in the

middle. He continues, and he's riding this donkey,

and by doing this, he's evoking, he's giving

Zechariah 9 verse 9. You see, triumphant entries,

Zechariah 9:9

they're done on war horses. Jesus enters on a

colt, he's a young donkey. War horses, they're

huge, they're impressive, they're intimidating.

Donkeys are goofy and cranky when you don't have

enough, when they don't have enough coffee in

the morning. If you are a parent, you will understand

that. You don't fight wars on a young donkey.

See, he's subverting their expectations of a

warrior king and fulfilling the prophecy from

Zechariah 9. And this is the prophecy, rejoice,

O people of Zion, shout in triumph, O people

of Jerusalem. Look, your king is coming to you.

He is righteous and victorious, yet he is humble,

riding on a donkey, riding on a donkey's colt.

You see, Jesus is a king, yes. He is even their

king, yes. But even in this moment, he's letting

him know like I'm not just a king of Judea I'm

actually the king of the universe What's the

verse after Zechariah 9 9 Zechariah 9 10 you're

right This is what it says. I will remove the

battle chariots from Israel and the war horses

from Jerusalem I will destroy all weapons used

in battle and your King will bring peace to the

nations His realm will stretch from sea to see

and from the Euphrates River to the ends of the

earth. Your King has come in Israel. He's righteous

and victorious and humble. He is a good King.

He's here to do away with war. He's here to bring

peace, not just to Jerusalem, but to the ends

of the earth, the ends of the world. Jesus is

saying, you think I am the King of Israel, try

the universe. You think I'm here to free Jerusalem

from the oppression of Rome? I'm actually here

to free creation from the oppression of sin and

death. You think I'm here to win a decisive victory?

Yeah, I am. But it won't be through weapons of

war and the shedding of the blood of my enemies.

I will win a decisive victory by letting my enemies

shed my own blood through sacrificial love. My

death will put death to death. And they were

close. But the crowds, they... They missed the

real Jesus. They got Jesus wrong. They wanted

him to fit their agenda, to come and fix their

little Rome problem. And their expectations of

who Jesus is, they just crash up against the

reality of Jesus. I want you to hear this friends.

Whether or not you think you've got Jesus right.

Whether you try and treat him like a genie, or

a PA, or even if you're skeptical of his existence.

That does not change who Jesus is. Jesus does

not change based on how or what you think about

him. If he did, then he would just be a figment

of your imagination. Jesus is not a concept or

an idea. It's not like your best thoughts on

Australian foreign policy. I want you to hear

this. Jesus is. Jesus is. Jesus lives. Jesus

sits at the right hand of the Father and He will

come again to judge the living and the dead.

Don't get sucked into thinking that reality is

subjective. This is reality. That Jesus lives.

And He is righteous and He is victorious and

He is humble. Jesus is the King who left His

throne to die for you and me so that we could

have life. Jesus is the King who will come and

put you and me and all of creation right. We

can try to domesticate Jesus all we like we can

try and make him who we want him to be but that

would just time after time Crash up against the

reality of the living triangle Who someone is

matters friends this is who Jesus is and the

only proper response to Jesus is worship and

surrender Worship and surrender. But isn't worship

easier than surrender, if we're honest? Isn't

it easier to worship? Don't we prefer to worship?

Isn't it easier to elevate God, sing some songs,

create, enjoy, declare the goodness of God and

praise His name than to actually get down and

bow the knee to Him? Isn't it easier? It's so

much easier to worship than it is to give up

our way, our will, our desires, and our attentions

for our lives. To literally hand over the keys,

I don't have keys in my hand, but hand them over

to Jesus and to follow Him. Because this is His

call to you and to me. If you want to be my follower,

you must give up your own way. Take up your cross

and follow me. We struggle to surrender to Jesus.

I know I do. I have all these things I want to

do with my life. I hate being uncomfortable.

I want to have everything the way that I like

it. I want good friends and books to read and

cups of tea with hot cross buns. I want the beauty

of an early son. I want the laughter of my kids

and I also never want to be interrupted. And

those two things just don't go together. I know

what I like. I know what I prefer. I know what

my first preference is. I know my way. I know

my way. But surrender is letting go of my way

and choosing God's way. And this is hard because

surrender is a kind of death. It's a letting

go of our way. our preferences, our intentions,

our desires, and it's letting them go, it's letting

them die, it's letting them be subservient to

God's will. And that might mean that God's will

might be to do things and to go places and to

put yourself in situations that may not be your

first preference. You might have to let your

career go. You might have to move away from home.

You might have to move out of the comfort zone.

You might have to use your resources for the

sake of the world and not just for your own entertainment.

You might have to fast and pray and serve the

last, the loss and the least to step into what

God has for you. Psychologist David Benner says

this, the paradoxical law of God's kingdom is

that only when we give up what we clutch most

desperately will we receive it. Grasping destroys,

but surrender releases and transforms and restores.

And that echoes what Jesus says. If you try to

hang onto your life, you will lose it, but if

you give up your life for my sake, you will save

it. Surrender is hard because it requires a little

death of your will for your life. Most people

won't give up their will. except for love. David

Bennett goes on, apart from duress and fear,

nobody voluntarily submits their will and surrenders

their autonomy for any other reason than love.

When my kids were little, no part of me wanted

to surrender my will and autonomy to sleep. No

part of me. But they were up in the middle of

the night and you got to get up to them. Only

love gets you up in the middle of the night.

to get a small child back to sleep. Only love

takes a four -year -old to a four -year -old's

birthday party. That's so horrible. And awkward.

I'm already awkward so it's like a good start.

Only love. You know it's right, it's the right

thing to surrender to Jesus. Because He is the

King of the universe and yet we won't surrender

to Jesus. We won't do it unless we truly love

Him. Unless our love for Him is actually greater

than our will for ourselves. Again, David Benner,

he's my guy today. The only love that is powerful

enough to make us want, key word want, to turn

over the keys of the kingdom of self. Not simply

willing to do so is the love of God that springs

from a deep person knowing of God's love for

us. You know, it's been a long journey with Jesus

for me and I'm not always very good at it, but

I'm no longer just willing to surrender. I actually

have grown to want to surrender to Jesus. And

it's a key distinction, isn't it? You might be

willing to do something, but that's miles away

from wanting to do something. And here's why.

Here's why I want to surrender my will to Jesus.

Even though I'm bad at it, but if just something's

worth doing, it's worth doing poorly. Isn't that

right? Here's why. I'm just overcome by Jesus.

Jesus was someone who truly, truly mattered.

Like really, he mattered so much more than I

ever will. And yet out of love for me, he set

aside his will for his own life. He drank the

cup. He was humiliated and tortured and surrendered

his life on the cross so that I could have life

He did that for me. I Never deserved that I haven't

done anything that would warrant that kind of

love and Yet it is so It is so friends it's easy

to surrender in love To the one who in love surrendered

his life for us When you know in yourself that

God has loved you this much Surrendered to God

actually becomes a desire of your will. It's

not like you do it just because you have to you

do it because you want to Friends, however, you

see yourself As far from God, as undeserving,

as unlovable, as basically a good person, a good

Christian, a bad Christian, or as sceptical as

it comes, wherever you see yourself. This is

who you are. If you have faith in Jesus, this

is who you are. You are saved by grace through

faith. And this is not your own doing, but it

is a gift of God. Who someone is matters. and

this is who you are if you'll accept this gift

of God if you'll accept it as a gift you can't

earn it you don't deserve it you can't grow it

you can't lose it that's not how a gift works

you are loved by God deeply you are so loved

by God that Jesus the victorious righteous humble

king of the universe would give up his life for

you so no matter what anybody thinks about you

And no matter what you even think about yourself,

you matter. You matter and you are loved. And

this is the kind of love you've received by God

and King who sits on the throne of the universe.

How will you respond to Jesus? How will you respond

to Jesus? There's lots of things we could do

here tonight I've got like a million keys that

I could use to Give you one and you could hand

back, you know hand to God the keys of to your

life And I could do all these like other creative

things But I don't think tonight's the night

for that. I Think you have to really wrestle

with this question. How am I gonna respond to

Jesus? Not the Jesus that I make not the Jesus

I want him to be but the real Jesus who is here

amongst us because two are more are gathered.

How will you respond to Jesus? We're gonna sing

all hail come Jesus, all hail King Jesus now.

And what I wanna do is I wanna challenge you.

Do you wanna surrender to Jesus tonight? Because

you can, I can't make you do anything. But don't

do it because you feel like you have to. Don't

do it because you think there's an obligation

to do it. Don't do it because people are watching

you because people aren't watching you They're

all caught up in their own stuff. I'm not looking

at you How will you respond to this Jesus and

if it is to respond in surrender I challenge

you get on your knees bow your knee literally

in your body Physically get on the floor. I had

a time where God really challenged me Why wouldn't

I get on my knees in worship? And the heart of

it was that I really was just thinking about

how I looked, because it looks kind of dumb.

But that's because it's a posture of submission.

Like, it's not meant to look cool. It's meant

to be, I'm yours, Jesus. I'm letting go of everything.

I'm before you. I'm before you and you alone.

And I did it once, and it was hard, and I did

it twice, and it was easier. And then it just...

became a part of how I express myself in worship.

But Jesus had to challenge me. And I want to

challenge you today. How will you respond to

Jesus? or if you're interested in how you can

support this ministry, please go to our website

encounteradelaide .com .au Thanks again for listening.

God bless you.