Palm Sunday 2026

All right.

As I have just mentioned today is Palm Sunday and, uh, it is fitting

that we then preach on Palm Sunday.

Another, uh, name for today is the triumphal entry of Jesus.

This moment when Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a donkey.

And so this marks the beginning of what is the most sacred

week in the church calendar.

What is known?

Officially as Holy Week, it commences today, and so we've

been in the season of Lent.

We are coming to this sixth week of Lent now, and we will

come to Easter next Sunday.

And so Easter is this time of celebrating God's victory over death, celebrating

the new creation reality that is now made available to those who are enslaved

to death, but to truly celebrate the victory, it's so important that we allow

ourselves to feel the weight of this week.

So easy for this to all become very familiar.

For those of us who you know have celebrated Easter for a number of

years, who've remembered Easter, it is so, so easy for this all

to grow very, very familiar.

But I would encourage you to shake off that familiarity and to seek,

to really press in and to go on your own pilgrimage to the cross this week

in really, really intentional ways.

And so I wanna begin tonight just by asking a few questions of you.

As you consider the state of your inner world right now, where do you need peace?

Where might you need peace?

Is there anxiety?

Is there fear that is going on in you right now?

And then as you consider the state of our outer world, where do you

perceive that peace is needed?

It's probably.

It's not hard to come up with a place or two where, uh, there is a whole lot of

strife and you can go, oh my gosh, some peace in that situation would be awesome.

Just some peace at the Bowsers would be awesome, wouldn't it?

And then finally, as we consider this idea of peace, where do you

think this piece is gonna come from?

What will bring this piece?

And so my friends here tonight, do you know this day?

What will bring you peace?

Do you know this day what will bring peace to the world?

And so with those questions in mind, let us now look to this scripture

from Luke 19 verses 28 to 44.

Luke 19:28–44

After Jesus had said this, he went on ahead going up to Jerusalem as he

approached Beth Page and Bethany at the hill called the Mount of Olives.

He sent two of his disciples saying to them, go to the village ahead of you, and

as you enter it, you'll find a cult tied there, which no one has ever ridden Unti.

And bring it here.

If anyone asks you why are you untying it?

Say the Lord needs it.

Those who were sent ahead went and found it just as he had told them,

and they were untying the cult.

Its owners asked them, why are you untying the cult?

They replied, the Lord needs it.

They brought it to Jesus through their cloaks on the coal and put Jesus on it.

As he went along, people spread their cloaks on the road.

When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives,

the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices

for all the miracles they had seen.

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

Peace in heaven and glory in the highest.

And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus.

'cause there's always some at every party.

Teacher rebuke your disciples.

I tell you, he replied, if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.

As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said,

if you even, you had only known on this day what would bring you peace,

but now it is hidden from your eyes.

The days will come upon you.

When your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle

you, and hem you in on every side.

They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls.

They will not leave one stone on another because you did not recognize

the time of the Lord's coming to you.

So to ask this question again, which is clearly from this text,

do you know church this day?

What will bring you peace?

It might seem like an obvious question, but I actually don't know that it is.

And so let's just pray for a moment here, Lord, as we come before

your word tonight, open our eyes.

Holy Spirit, would you come and do the work that only you can

do to illuminate the word to us?

Holy Spirit, would you come?

And would you feel my words tonight with your truth and your power, and

your wisdom and your revelation?

And Lord, would you by the power of your spirit, enable each heart here

to receive your truth tonight, the truth that they need to know and

hear, perhaps even be awakened to.

And so, holy Spirit, come.

This is your time, this is your place.

This is your word, and these are your people.

So would you come and minister?

Powerfully graciously through this word tonight we pray.

Amen.

Okay, so it's been an interesting week this week.

Another interesting week, hasn't it?

And uh, as I've been preparing this message, we've been hearing all these

regular weather updates about all Noelle.

Good old tropical Cyclone Noelle, who uh, yeah, has brought quite a

bit of damage to the north of wa.

Maybe we haven't felt the effect quite as much down here in Perth as

we had initially thought we would.

But there's been so many reports, so much attention this week

has been around this storm.

What is this storm gonna bring?

And so it's why, why I say it's been interesting preparing this message in

light of the reality of Cyclone Noelle.

Because in this moment that we just read, we actually see Jesus as he

rides into Jerusalem on a donkey.

He's actually riding into a perfect storm and a storm that makes Narelle

look like a sweet spring breeze.

And so just for a moment, I wanna talk about the storm that is brewing

around Jesus in this moment as a way of helping us to really understand and

apprehend the context of what is actually going on in this passage right now.

There's so much more just than people throwing some branches and cloaks

down and a donkey and all of that.

There's so much more going on here.

And, uh, what seems on the surface to be Jesus riding into a scene of

triumph and victory and rejoicing.

It's actually Jesus riding into the eye of a storm, a perfect storm.

And so, what do I mean by this phrase, perfect storm?

Most of you're probably familiar with it.

There's this moment where multiple destructive forces converge at one

time, in one place, in one moment.

I had a perfect storm moment the other day.

So my, Charlotte, my youngest, she recently got a new dog and

he's a bit on the young side, a rescue dog, and he's quite cute.

And so I found myself on this one day.

I've got Coba with me in the house, that's his name.

And uh, Charlotte was off to work and I had, I think it'll be a pretty full week.

And I had this quiet moment, this quiet morning, and I just make

myself a delicious cup of coffee.

And I have this special couch, I call it my cloud couch.

It's where I pray.

It was like a birthday present a couple of years ago, and it's such a

lovely couch and it's so comfortable.

And I have this other really nice couch in this room when

one child moves outta her home.

It's really amazing what you can do with the extra space.

And uh, it's quite glorious And, um, it's real kind of, you know, icing on the.

Cake is no.

Is that bittersweet?

Okay.

It's the sweet in the bitter when a child moves out.

That's right.

It's sad.

Um, and uh, so I had this lovely room and I got my lovely coffee and I'm about to

have this lovely moment with the Lord and in runs the dog and he jumps on the couch.

And so I say, oh, get off.

And then he pees himself, right?

And then so I go to grab him, but he is like, no, I am not leaving this room.

So he bounces off that couch and onto my cloud couch, and he pees on that as well.

Yeah, and then in my wrestle to try and get him, he, I then knocked my cup

of coffee over all over the carpet.

And, uh, so it's like this perfect storm moment and let's just say what

came out of me right then may not have been a wonderful demonstration

of the fruit of the spirit.

Let's just say that.

Oh, that's right.

'cause I'd also woken up with like, my hormones were going mental and so I

was like already borderline psychotic.

And then I've.

The, all this expectation of this nice moment with my coffee and now

there's dog pee and coffee everywhere.

And so that's what I mean by a perfect storm, right?

Which, okay, what Jesus is going into is just a slightly more serious than.

My perfect storm that I did lose my mind over for a few moments.

All right, so what storm exactly is Jesus riding into as these people rejoice?

What forces are converging here?

These forces that will conspire to see within less than a

week in a few short days.

Jesus being hung on a cross, going from being adored to being crucified.

What are the forces at play?

So firstly, we've got the political forces of empire, the super power of Rome.

And so in the proceeding centuries, up until this point where Jesus is

riding into Jerusalem, Rome's power.

Increased enormously.

30 years before the birth of Jesus.

Julius Caesar's adopted son Octavian after a bloody civil war.

He emerges as Victor and he takes the title Augustus, which means

majestic or worthy of honor.

He was so great in Roman times of giving themselves awesome titles.

And so he declared, um, Augustus declares that Julius, his adopted

father had actually become divine, and therefore that left Augustus

now being the official son of God.

So the good news, now we know the good news to be the good news of Jesus Christ,

but we've gotta remember this phrase.

Good news in the Greek yuang.

Gallian is actually a term that was common in society in that day.

Not just among God's people, but everywhere in society.

Good news was just news that was announced and heralded.

And so the good news at this time was this, in the known world at this time,

the news that was spreading the good news was, we have an emperor, and it

was, the good news was this, the son of God has become king of the world.

In the emperor.

And so when we hear this phrase that Jesus is a son of God, right?

Jesus is fully hijacking this phrase that was already prevalent in society.

And then after Augustus's death, Tiberius took the same title as

Augustus, but he also took the title Ponte Pontifex Maximus.

There's a kid's name for anyone who's pregnant in here right now,

uh, which means Chief Priest.

And so Tiberius stood at the top of a system where political and religious

authority merged in the emperor, making the claims about Jesus as king and priest.

Oh, they were not just theological claims.

These were deeply.

Political claims.

And what do I mean by political here?

When I say political, I don't mean party politics.

I mean the deeper question of power and rule and how peace

is brought into the world.

So when you used the word political in this context, I'm not just talking about

governments and policies, it's about how we believe peace comes into the

world and who has the power to bring it.

So Pax Romana was, uh, was the order of the day.

In Jesus' time, and this was Romans piece, but how did that piece come about?

Oh, it wasn't kind and it wasn't gentle.

It was through military might.

It was pretty awful actually.

And Jesus, as he's riding into Jerusalem, oh, he is stirring up.

The evil principalities and power that are behind empire and he is ticking

them off like nothing else, right?

He is an affront to these forces, and so the people through whom

these forces work, and so the second force that is converging.

In this moment is the Jewish people and their expectations of their long

awaited for and promised Messiah.

So living as a Jewish person in this time was pretty darn awful.

It was brutal.

You are living, essentially living as an exile in your own land, politically

oppressed, economically crushed unless you were a priest or a tax collector.

Most people existing in a subsistence way of life, many having to sell themselves

into slavery, sell their families into slavery to survive, and these people.

Don't miss this.

We read about them laying down their cloaks.

You know, for us, probably laying down a cloak or two wouldn't be such

a big deal, but these people are poor.

They're lucky to have a cloak.

They've got a cloak.

They've only got one, and they're laying it down.

That's how much their hope is in Jesus for his deliverance and for the way they want

him to de come to come and deliver them.

They had such big expectations of Jesus, and while it doesn't say

it here in Luke's account, in the other three gospel accounts, we

hear the crowds shouting, Hosanna.

And so Hosanna literally means, I beg you to save.

Please deliver us.

And so they're crying out for deliverance and they're rejoicing because they

have seen the power of Jesus to do the miraculous, to heal the sick, to

cast out demons, to raise the dead.

So they're going this one, he's got the power to overthrow Rome.

It is gonna happen.

It's finally gonna happen.

Rome is gonna get crushed.

This is the expectation because, so these are the Exodus people, right?

These are the people of the Exodus story, a Passover.

They remember the Exodus story every year, and they know what God did with Pharaoh.

So he's gonna come and do it again, and it's gonna be dramatic,

just like it was with Pharaoh.

And these are all the expectations that are stirring in the

people of God all their hopes.

And here he is coming on a donkey.

And didn't the prophet Zacharia prophesy this some centuries ago that

this is how the Messiah would come.

It's happening Rome's about to get what's coming to them.

This is the hope of the people that is swirling.

And then the third and final force, and this is the force that is the free

and sovereign God, the God who fulfills his promises, but just not in ways.

That always conform to human expectation.

And yes, as Jesus comes to Jerusalem in this moment, he is embodying and

incarnating the return of Israel's God to his people in power and glory.

But it was a different kind of power.

And a very different kind of glory from what they were hoping and expecting.

And for moments, let's just consider right now as we've had an understanding of the

storm that is now brewing around Jesus in this moment, that storm that is gonna

see him by Friday hanging on a cross.

Let's now just consider another aspect of this passage that we just read.

So that, um, so that we might really apprehend the heart of Jesus this Easter.

It may be in a way we haven't for a while, because Jesus weeps

in this passage, doesn't he?

The Son of God weeps.

And just to read this passage again, says this, as he approaches to Jerusalem.

And as he sees the city, he weeps over it.

And he says, if you even, you had only known this day what would

bring you peace, but now it's hidden from your eyes, and now all this

suffering is gonna come upon you.

Why?

Because you did not recognize the time of Gods coming to you.

And so in the eye of this perfect storm, Jesus weeps.

And he weeps over Jerusalem.

He weeps over the people of God, and even though he knows what lies ahead, he knows.

He knows what these people are gonna do to him in a few short days.

How the cries of adoration are gonna turn to cries for his crucifixion.

Even though he knows all this, he still weeps over them.

You know, John four tells of this reality, the beginning of his gospel in

John one verses nine to 11 when he says this, the true light that gives light

to everyone was coming into the world.

He was in the world, and though the world was made through him,

the world did not recognize him.

He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.

Oh, it's such a tragedy when people don't see Jesus.

Hey.

It is a very tragic thing indeed, and I really think it would do us well to

consider the posture of Jesus here.

Not just that we would apprehend his heart, but that we might learn

how we should first respond to the brokenness of the world around us.

What is your compulsion, your intuition, when you notice people missing Jesus

when they fail to see him recognize him?

Do you grieve over that?

Do you grieve over the places in the world, the people around you in your

world who don't know him, who can't see him for whatever reason, they are

blinded to the truth of who he is?

Does that grieve you?

Because, gosh, church, the history of the church in more recent times has been,

we have just adopted the posture of the moral police of the world, and we are

just out there with our stick telling the world what they're doing wrong.

Right where they're sinning, and that is not the posture of Jesus.

Jesus weeps over the brokenness.

He weeps when people fail to see the truth and the beauty and the goodness

of who he is, my gosh, church.

Can you imagine if the whole world was to suddenly turn to Jesus?

The whole world was to say, Jesus, you are my king.

The whole world was to suddenly go, I pledge my life to you

and to walk in your ways.

To seek first your kingdom, to seek the good of the other before my own, to treat

others as I would like to be treated.

The commands of Jesus actually are so simple, but such as the depravity and the

brokenness of the human heart, they're impossible unless the spirit comes.

But can you imagine if everybody just started loving their neighbor?

Oh my gosh.

Oh my gosh.

And we should grieve.

Grieve over.

This what sin and death and evil cost people because Jesus

grieves and it breaks his heart.

All right, so in this moment right now, Jesus is weeping because they do not

know this day what will bring them peace.

He longs to give them the peace that they need, but they

don't know what will bring it.

They are misunderstanding the moment they are misunderstanding him.

And so peace.

Uh, the Hebrew word for it is a beautiful word, shalom.

And it's not actually about, you know, a lack of external

strife, but is about wholeness.

Under God's rule and reign.

The word shalom means nothing missing, nothing broken, and true.

True peace is about taking what is broken and seeing it restored.

And Jesus weeps because the people don't see that they are

the ones in need of restoration.

He weeks because he knows God's judgment is coming and they don't

understand that this judgment is actually gonna begin with them.

They think it's coming for the Romans, but they're God's people

and they've missed their calling.

You know, Andrea so beautifully touched on this before, during worship, and

she gave us that call to our calling to remind us about our calling.

Israel in this moment had forgotten their calling.

They thought they were just meant to be a great, mighty, powerful nation.

They wouldn't know.

They were meant to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

They were meant to shine the light of God out into the world.

That was always their vocation.

My friends here tonight, that's your vocation.

If you would call yourself a disciple of Jesus, a follower of Jesus

that is your higher noble vocation

to bear witness to Jesus in the world, to be a kingdom of priests.

That vocation hasn't shifted and uh, that was.

You know, I've just been in the book of Ezekiel right now.

Oh, that's a good time.

And, um, you, God is royally ticked at his people in Ezekiel and why, you

know, you might read it and go, gee, God, you're being a little bit harsh.

But no, because Israel had it all.

And they turned away from the living God.

They had the presence of the living God in their midst.

They had the way of God in the law and they turned away to other gods.

And in so doing, they didn't just shame and defame the name of God,

the cost to the surrounding nations who were no longer being delivered

because Israel was not being a light.

And that is, that's sobering for us today too.

The cost of the world.

When we fail in our vocation to be salt and light in the world, hey, and this

is why the judgment of God is coming.

Because they failed in their vocation and Jesus weeps because

it didn't have to be this way.

So let us apprehend and wonder at the heart of Jesus, because you know what?

If I was Jesus, I'd be slight smart, them almighty, smarter.

You know, because my patience for this kind of thing isn't great.

Thank goodness I'm not in control of the universe.

Thank goodness a God of love is.

Because that's not his posture at all.

Isaiah 53, verse three says of him, he was despised and rejected by

men, a man of sorrows and pain, and acquainted with grief, and like one

from whom meant hid their faces.

He was despised and we did not appreciate his worth or esteem him.

Oh, it's a tragedy when the people of God do not appreciate

his worth and fail to esteem him.

May that not be us.

May that not be so on our watch.

Hey, oh, holy Spirit, would you come and would you open

our eyes to the worth of Jesus?

I know.

Holy Spirit, that is your favorite thing to do.

Is to make much of Jesus.

And so where familiarity has crept in, where spiritual blindness has

crept in, where disappointment perhaps has crowded out that understanding,

holy Spirit, would you come?

Would you cause the scales to fall off blind eyes tonight?

That every soul here would appreciate the worth of Jesus and would esteem

him from the depths of their heart?

Amen.

Amen.

Am I?

How am I going?

Ooh, so much time.

I almost feel the groans now.

So why did the people, and why do we miss Jesus and therefore miss what this day?

We'll bring us peace.

I think, uh, like the Israelites, we can miss Jesus because he just comes in ways

that continually defy our understanding.

You know, the Israelites had made a savior.

A Messiah in their own image.

That's what they were worshiping in this moment, not the true Jesus.

They're worshiping an image that they had created of him, and

we can so easily do the same.

We make a Jesus in our own image who we think we need him to be,

and then he fails to deliver and we get all bitter and twisted.

And you go, well, was it the true Jesus that you were actually worshiping and

perhaps he hadn't actually abandoned you, but perhaps he had actually come to

you in ways that maybe you just hadn't expected or you'd misunderstood, like

riding on a donkey because, uh uh, nope.

Wait.

Not just a donkey, but the cult of a donkey, the fall of

a donkey, and one that had.

Never been ridden before, an unbroken donkey.

And so typically an unbroken horse or a donkey is not the best

choice for a triumphal entry.

You know, donkeys aren't generally known for their amenable natures.

They're known for their stubbornness.

And then you pick one that's actually a baby one who's never been ridden before,

and that's Jesus' choice to ride in to Jerusalem as he rides in to be enthralled.

And it's actually quite a comical site, right?

Because donkeys are not big creatures, okay?

Now, Jesus would likely not have been a huge tall man, okay?

Because he is, you know, middle Eastern and so he is probably not six or three,

six foot four, but still, you know, donkeys are about here at their shoulders.

And then you got one that's not fully grown, okay?

Jesus, were your feet dragging on the ground?

Like it's almost a comical look, isn't it?

And this is how the King of Kings comes in ways that are very unexpected.

And for you, Bible nerds out there.

Oh, I'd never seen this before.

I came across this this week and I was just like, oh, amazing.

So I was doing a bit of a word search on donkey in the Old Testament.

Where did donkeys make an appearance in the Old Testament?

They make quite a lot of appearances actually.

But this one I found particularly striking.

This mention of donkeys, and you can find this in Exodus 1313 and

Exodus 34 20, and this command is given to the Israelites as a part of

their covenant, the mosaic covenant.

And it says this redeem with a lamb every first born donkey.

If you do not redeem it.

Then break its neck.

Every firstborn, donkey.

Now donkeys were symbols of uncles.

Every firstborn donkey could only live if a lamb was to die in its place.

Ooh, there's some symbolism right there.

Hey, and so here is Jesus the Lamb of God, riding into Jerusalem on a donkey,

not just to ride it to become the lamb who dies so that the unclean can live.

Oh, so good.

Wow.

And you know, the powerful image that every donkey carries, who knows this,

that every donkey even today still carries this image of the cross.

Every donkey.

My mom has one, I guess she said.

And they bear a mark, a lion down their back and a lion down their shoulder.

This mark of the crucifix on the back of every donkey, um, signs.

The signs are everywhere if we know how to read them and see them.

And so the people in this story, they're crying out for peace.

But the piece they need's not gonna come through.

Military might power like they want it to come, but it's gonna come

through substitutionary sacrifice.

It's gonna come.

From the lamb of God giving up his life to take away the sin of the world.

He comes in ways that are humble and unlikely.

He comes in power that looks an awful lot like weakness.

And so maybe you're wondering where Jesus is for you right now, and maybe

he is right here with you, but maybe you're missing him because he does come

in ways that are unexpected, that defy our imagination sometime because we

like to create a God in our own image.

Yeah, but he operates outside of our boxes.

Outside of our categories, and he comes according to what we need,

not according to what we want.

And that can be a bit of pill some days quite just quietly.

But as you journey with him over time, then you come to know and see, and I

know you faithful Saints who've been in this for the long haul with Jesus.

You know, as you look back, you go, oh, all right.

Yeah, I've, I really struggled to see you in that moment.

In the moment.

But now as I look back.

I see how you were with me and your way was so much better than my way.

And this is where the journey of faith kicks in.

Hey, and the journey of trusting him and trusting his character, even when he is

operating in ways we don't understand.

And so, secondly, we like the Israelites.

We can miss Jesus 'cause we are blind about by our own fear and

suffering to what we truly need.

Remember, these people are really suffering.

Yeah.

Their lives are not easy, and they thought their greatest need though

was for their enemy, Rome to be crushed in a violent overthrow.

They thought that Rome was their biggest problem.

But their greatest enemy wasn't actually Rome like us.

Their greatest enemy was sin and death, and the spiritual forces are

evil that work through sin and death.

Their greatest need wasn't the crushing of Rome, but the crushing of sin and death

and evil to be forgiven and redeemed and rescued from the kingdom of darkness.

And brought into the kingdom alliah.

And so like Israel, we can miss Jesus and miss the peace that we all need

and so desperately long for because we think the problem is out there.

And so often our chief problem is actually within.

And fear and suffering can do a real work on us at times, and I know some

of you are in it right now, and the fear and suffering that comes from

the circumstances around us, what it can do is it can narrow our vision.

And we fixate on immediate threats.

And it can simplify our reality where we reduce complex problems to visible enemies

and it can compel us to grasp, but control reaching for power and not surrender.

And so fear and suffering don't just make us anxious.

They actually make us so often misdiagnose reality.

Remember these Israelite people, they were suffering.

Their life was for so many of them, a life of suffering.

And so they'd lost their focus.

They'd lost sight of the fullness of the promises that God had

given them through the prophets.

They'd lost sight and they just grasped hold to the little bits of truth

that they thought they needed, but they were missing the bigger picture.

And so modern equivalence for us today, you know, might be, if this situation

would change, then I would have peace.

If that person would change, then I might have peace.

You know, if God would just fill in the blank, heal me.

If God would just fix this situation, you know, then I might have peace.

And I don't wanna minimize real suffering or injustice.

Rome is real, but Jesus is saying, even if Rome falls without redemption,

peace is still gonna allude you.

For, he himself is our peace.

That's what it says in Ephesians, doesn't it?

He himself is our peace.

So you who are suffering today, who are perhaps in a place of

fear, worry, anxiety, and hey, it's understandable as we watch the news.

Maybe, uh, do you know this day what will bring you peace?

What is the story that fear and suffering are telling you?

Is it telling you that you are not okay?

Is it telling you that you're never gonna be okay?

Unless, is it telling you that there is no hope?

What story are your sufferings telling you about?

What will bring you peace and is it a true story?

So.

This is the temptation that we face in this life.

Hey, and as the people of God, there is always something wanted to drag

us away, the temptations that come, that we would place our peace in

something else other than Jesus.

And when we do that, we become very vulnerable and on shaky ground.

Indeed.

All right, as I bring this home, so in a few short days, these

people, they're gonna turn on Jesus.

They're gonna be yelling, crucify him.

Crucify him, you know, in more traditional liturgical churches at this time of

year, Palm Sunday, you know, you would've all been given a palm frond, um, as you

came in to church, and there would've been this moment of laying down the palm

fronds, waving them and laying them down.

But then there is also a moment.

In, uh, a more traditional liturgical service where the passion narrative is

red, the crucifixion of Jesus is red.

The trial of Jesus is red, and everybody in the congregation

stands up and starts to yell.

Crucify him.

Crucify him, crucify him.

Oh, that's gotta be a sobering moment.

I'm almost tempted to give it a whirl, but I won't.

'cause I feel like you didn't come prepared for that.

But if, as I say that you go and, oh, I can't do that, I would never,

you know, if I had have been there then that wouldn't have been me.

You kidding?

Yourself, it would've been you.

It would've been you.

And if you think it wouldn't have been you.

You are gonna miss Easter.

You're gonna miss the grace of it and the beauty of it, and the wonder of it, right?

You gotta know you're no different to these people.

You're no smarter, you're no better.

CS Lewis has this great phrase called chronological snobbery,

where we think because we live now in 2026, we are somehow smarter,

more enlightened than say, people who lived back in biblical times.

Oh, the arrogance and the pride is astounding because I can guarantee if.

The good Lord tarries and doesn't come back for another, you know, 500,000 years.

People in those times will look back at us and go, what were they thinking?

Yeah.

Every generation misses it.

Yeah.

And, uh, you need to see yourself as one of those people.

'cause then when Easter comes, when Resurrection Sunday comes.

It will pierce your heart at the grace of God that he would die

for one who would betray him?

What kind of God is this?

Oh, his worth, his beauty, his majesty, his grace.

Astounding, utterly astounding.

So these people, they're gonna turn on him.

Why?

Because he has failed to meet their expectations because he hasn't

delivered what they want, when they want it in the way they want it.

'cause he hasn't manifested the power that they hungered for and hoped for.

He has come as the king they need, but not the king they want.

So they turn on him and they become complicit in his murder.

You know?

And I have had moments where I've turned on Jesus 'cause he

has failed to meet my demands.

I've had those moments.

I was just like, I just can't follow you anymore because you have failed me.

Is that okay to admit as a pastor?

Is anyone gonna leave the church now?

Um, but I've had those moments 'cause I've got places of deep pain and

suffering in my world and Jesus hasn't shown up how I've really hoped and

asked that he was not yet anyway.

And I had moments where I've just gone.

I just, I remember this moment clearly.

It's kind of comical.

Because I was just having this complete like dark night of the soul moment.

And um, I was like, all right, I'm done with you, Jesus.

I'm gonna become an atheist.

And I know this is really awkward being a pastor and trying to be an atheist.

I dunno how this is gonna outwork, but in right the moment, right now, I just

don't think I can do this anymore.

And um, and then I quickly realized, oh, okay, well I can't with all

integrity, be an atheist and be angry at you at the same time.

That's very disingenuous.

So this atheism thing's not gonna work out.

Alright?

And so what do you do if you find yourselves in these moments?

Right?

And we all find ourselves in these moments where we just don't understand, right?

We just don't understand where is your deliverance?

And this is when we pray our crap prayers, church, right?

The lament prayers that we see in the sound.

And this is, we complain to God, okay?

I'm not talking about some form of Christian toxic positivity here,

where we just like, you know, it's just consider a pure joy, right?

Which we, okay, we can get there, right?

But we, we send out our complaint to God, we cry it out.

We give him our request.

That's the R. So crap is an acronym.

Okay?

C complain, R request.

And then we praise him.

But God, it's the Mesha, Shadrach, and a Bendigo posture.

You know, our God will deliver us, but even if he does not,

we will not bend the knee.

So, Lord, I don't know where you are in this.

Please, will you show up?

But I will praise you anyway even if you do not, and I will not turn from

you because where else will I go?

You had the words of eternal life.

That's where the disciples came to in that moment, in John chapter six, where

Jesus is like, everybody's leaving Jesus.

'cause he is just said some real funky teaching about eating his

flesh and drinking his blood.

And everybody's like, okay, well we thought you were cool,

but now you're just weird.

And everybody is starting to move away from him.

And Jesus says, two disciples, whether are you gonna go to?

And they're like, oh, right.

We think you're a bit tapped, but you do have the words of eternal life.

And so where else are we gonna go?

Where us?

And some of you know that place, don't you?

You are just like, oh, get it right now, Lord.

But where else am I gonna go?

You've got me.

You've hem me in.

I am yours.

I am your, so let's bring it home with this passage of

scripture here from Zacharia.

Oh.

Where is our multimedia person?

Oh, are you there?

Well, you were on your phone, weren't you?

Is that his name?

Did I, did I just call you out?

Ah, all right.

Rejoice greatly.

Daughter Zion.

Shout daughter Jerusalem.

See your king comes to you.

Righteous and victorious.

Lowly.

And riding on a donkey, on a cult, the fo of a donkey.

I will take away the chariots from E Frame and the war horses from Jerusalem.

Why is he doing that?

Because this is a time for the peace of God to come and

the battle bow will be broken.

He'll proclaim peace to the nations.

His rule will extend from sea to sea, from the river to the ends of the earth.

As for you, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will free

your prisoners from the waterless pit.

Return to your fortress.

You prisoners of hope.

What a great line.

Even now, I announce that I will restore twice as much to you.

Ooh, this is the promise that Jesus is fulfilling in this moment.

But let's just zoom in on those words there.

See your king.

See your king.

Can you see your king tonight?

Church.

This is the good news of Easter that the true son of God has become the

true and eternal king of the world.

And this king is the prince of peace, and he came that you would know peace

that you would apprehend and that you would live out that peace and that

you would be able to make that peace.

No un to a world that so desperately needs to know it, but

it begins by seeing him as king.

Is he your king tonight Church?

Is he your king?

Can you say king Jesus?

What does it mean to call Jesus king?

It means you're pledging your whole allegiance, your whole life to him.

You're submitting your will to his will.

Not my will, but your will be done.

Lord, that is what it is to have him as king and you can only know.

See Romans, it says about his kingdom, and it's not a matter of eating and drinking

the kingdom of God, but it's about.

Righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

So to have this righteousness and peace and joy, we must submit to the king,

to the will and the way of the king.

To know his peace and to receive his peace.

But so often, right, we want the kingdom without the king.

We want the peace, we want the joy, we want all that good stuff.

But we don't wanna bend the knee.

We want it on our terms our way.

Thank you, Lord.

It just won't work.

You cannot have the kingdom without the king, and I would encourage

you from this message tonight, just be asking yourself that way.

Are you my king Lord?

Are you enthroned as king of my heart, king of my life, right?

Because it's easy to say it.

But then what does your life say?

About where your hope lies, about where your peace lies.

Is it in him or has something else slipped on to the throne of your heart,

perhaps, is something else sitting there?

You know, this is what idolatry is.

It's when something else is taking that place of enthronement on your heart.

You're bending the knee to something else.

Could be comfort, could be control, could be power, could be approval.

Could be a relationship.

Oh, we are.

The human heart is an idol factory.

As one famous person said long ago, we are so good at enting other

things on our heart, and you'll know it 'cause you won't have peace.

That's a really good sign that something else has snuck on there.

And it can be really good stuff.

So often the really good things, the real blessings from God, things like.

Marriage, things like children can actually take that

place that only Jesus can.

And, uh, I'd encourage you to just up up that posture before the Lord

and the Holy Spirit test me and know me, know my anxious ways.

See if there is any offensive way, if there is any idolatry

in me, Lord, and lead me in your everlasting, peaceful good ways.

Amen.

All right, let's call it there.

Actually, can you just chuck up this slide here, this last slide there,

which just has some questions and if you just wanna take down these questions,

take a photo of them maybe, and just to consider, just to help you reflect.

But I think that last one is really key.

Is Jesus your king.

And I ask that question without, I don't wanna shame you into this

or guilt you into this, right?

It's just an invitation.

It's just an invitation for you to perhaps examine your heart and go, oh

Jesus, are you really enthroned there or is something else taken your place?

And destroying my peace in, its doing so.

All right, friends, I'm gonna pray for you and then, uh.

I know young adults, you've got a Palm Sunday long table dinner coming.

So if you're of the 18 to 25 persuasion dinner is coming your way down in unit

two and I'm sure it'll be wonderful Palm Sunday long table dinner.

But let me pray and dear Lord, thank you

for this word, Lord, tonight we thank you for this holy week that we are

stepping into right now and Lord.

I just wanna come back to those words from Isaiah 53.

May we this week truly appreciate your worth?

May we all this week truly come to a place of esteeming you or grace us to be able to

shake off every spec of familiarity, every bit of cynicism, every bit of distraction,

doubt, whatever it might be, and to see you in the fullness of your glory.

To see you as beautiful,

to see the beauty and to marvel at the wonder of what you have done

and that you would even do it.

Open our eyes, draw us deeper, draw us deeper into the story

of Easter that come Good Friday, we would be pierced to the core

and come Sunday.

We would rejoice from the depths of our being as those who have been

set free by your sacrifice for who the sun sets free is free indeed.

Not even death has a hold on us anymore.

Maybe come to a full and deep, profound revelatory earth shaking understanding

of that throughout this coming week and into next weekend we pray.

Amen.