The First Gospel - w/Pastor Chris Britton

Right. Good morning everyone. How y'all doing this grand morning? As he said, I'm

a pastor Chris and it is my honor to continue to preach on the Book of Mark.

We've been talking about the Book of Mark for a few weeks here and I'm excited

to be teaching today as we enter Holy Week, amen? And I don't know about you

but especially here in the Midwest there's something about being here that

keeps us in a state of anticipation as we anticipate if it's the weather, if

it's the final four, March Madness, whatever it may be we're in this

anticipation of this new season of things. And this type time of year perhaps even

spiritually and within our souls there might be a longing or an anticipatory

feel during a Holy Week. The week that we remember the journey of Christ

entering into the city in celebration that ultimately ends in a death. However

there is Holy Resurrection. Despite what you might think about it's Easter there

are traditions, right, that families partake in even if it's not celebrating

Easter during this time then you have a tradition of not celebrating Easter

whatever the case it is there's a tradition that you hold however some

people like what I don't celebrate I don't celebrate tradition there you go

however there's a large majority of folks that attend services you dress up

or you have some family things or you barbecue if the weather's right here but

whatever the case there's a lot of different kind of traditions that take

place during this time of year and as I was doing this message I remember that

when my wife and I were young parents of three beautiful girls shout out to you

now they're embarrassed but we would love this time of year because we did

want to dress them up in their dresses and things like that and oftentimes one

of their grandmothers would give them some dresses I don't know if we ever had

to buy Easter dress but and we will look forward to the day that we would get to

dress them up and go to church and we was at a different church when they were

younger but my wife my beautiful wife is an essential worker so her beautiful

essential work itself sometimes she was wasn't able to be at the Easter service

so that left solo dad and I took pride in those days so much so that I enrolled

in a ponytail boot camp and I think I got the ponytails down we could maybe

look at some old pictures today later to see if I had passed the test but it felt

good that I would be able to boldly walk into the church with my three girls in

their Sunday's best dressed by dad I remember one one one didn't go as planned

I was in a rush I was kind of froused I just remember getting there hurrying up

and throwing them into the kids nursery whatever not throwing them but I

remember there was a you know some of the ladies in this church that we were

at it was a fairly big church so we had to check them into their each of their

separate little rooms I remember one of the ladies they were good friends with

us at that time and they were like what did you put in her hair now like man I

just sprayed some some hold spray in that piece you know I mean it's windy

out there and a head was as hard as a helmet man I'm trying to tell you but I

was just like yeah yeah I'm trying you know I'm saying so I know that I try I

try but there was kind of a running joke that you know people kind of look out

for the grand entrance when I would come in my wife would be working they'd be

like oh wonder how they dress this time wonder how they are dressed this time

but that is a good memory but today we get to see Christ grand entrance and

believe it or not with all the talk surrounding Jesus during that time what

it looked like kind of did matter to the people the entrance did matter and what

Jesus wore what he traveled into Jerusalem on his vehicle of

transportation that all mattered and all was a part of the bigger picture it all

mattered the people for many reasons because this was Jesus who was to come as

the King of Kings so today we get a front row seat and seeing how he was

received by the people as recorded in the gospel of Mark so we'll be in the

book of Mark chapter 11 verse 1 through 11 it all starts again a week before

Mark 11:1–11

we call Easter and Palm Sunday so we have a tradition where we stand as

you're able in spirit and as you are able in the reading of God's Word Bibles

are available you can take one that's out in the lobby area or log in to your

favorite Bible app but mark 11 1 through 11 and we'll read today's passage now

when they drew near to Jerusalem to Beth Pais and Bethany at the Mount of

Olives Jesus sent two of his disciples and said to them go into the village in

front of you and immediately as you enter it you will find a colt tied on

which no one has ever sat untied and bring it if anyone says to you why are

you doing this say the Lord has need of it and we'll send it back here

immediately and they went away and found a colt tied at a door outside in the

street and they untied it and some of those standing there said to them what

are you doing I'm tying the colt and they told them what Jesus had said and

they let them go and they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on

it and he sat on it and many spread their cloaks on the road and others

spread leafy branches that they had cut from the fields and those who went

before and those who followed were shouting Hosanna blessed is is he who

comes in the name of the Lord blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David

Hosanna in the highest and he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple and

when he had looked around at everything as it was already late he went out to

Bethany with the 12 let me pray God thank you so much it's a blessing to

join together this morning to worship you to fellowship together with your

spirit may you open our ears and hearts to receive your word today help us to

understand what it means to put our trust in you more and more it's my

prayer today that we can be encouraged to act on your word today to envision

this text and immerse ourselves inside your story and your name we pray amen

thank you you may be seated so going through this passage some of you that

have been with us for a while I've heard me kind of brag about her talk about her

but it always means something a little bit different to me ever since visiting

the Holy Land a few years ago I mentioned before that we are blessed as

a church I believe all the teachers are the teaching team on separate occasions

the last few years have had the opportunity to visit biblical locations

Greg and I have been to the Holy Land on separate occasions pastor Jane has been

to many places a lot of places you could play where in the world is Jen at some

points but she's been to biblical places and places that Paul has traveled when

he was preaching but there's an important realization that we all have

kind of come together and back when we talk about our trips that we've

appreciated the richness of the role that geography does play in the

scriptures and I got to go and experience the geography of the Holy

Land which kind of puts this story in like 5d like you know like you're

actually immersed in it and you feel the heat and you get to see he's laughing

because you know what I'm saying it's hot and you get to see that it's not

just these paved roads and I'm always I'm always just amazed at how there's a

lot of traveling in the scriptures and it's so fast that it happens that we

can miss the humanity of the story Jesus has some good cardio yeah yeah you look

at the geography of the place imagine we're really blessed in the Quad Cities

if you think about when I think about the story often say think about if you're

at the top of Longview and there's this valley right there separating you from

where the bridge is that if you're at long you can see the bridge this was an

everyday route for Jesus walking up and down this thing you know I went sledding

I had a brag on this we just had that snowfall it was weird we built a snowman

that morning we sled it that day and I went on a bike ride later because it was

warm first time in my history I ever did that I just did it so I can say like I

did all this in one day but uh the sledding didn't last that long yo we went

down a couple times and I was so windy coming about it wasn't like the old

Chris you know I was just not just running up there like hey let's go again

I was like hey I think it might be time to go we we we did it you know so we

went a few times but uh yeah there was there's this geography that plays a

significant role in the story because you can imagine long you kind of be in

this mound of olives and and Jesus has to he's you can see the holy city right

I know it's kind of funny but you picture our bridge being where the holy

city would be more marveling at this place but you got to get there all right

no ubers no Metrolinx no hey come pick me up here and Jesus his mode of

transportation is very interesting and we're going to talk more about what that

means in the big picture of God's Word in the story today well on the road Jesus

took a traveler would arrive first to Bethany and then come to Bethpage which

was about two miles from Jerusalem as I said before geography plays an important

part just to kind of visually see this the elevation at this point is about

2,600 feet and from it you have this breathtaking view of the holy city Greg

mentions a little bit about this last week but since it was Passover the

ancient Jewish horse historian Josephus notes that there were most likely

hundreds of thousands of people in and around Jerusalem to remember to celebrate

Passover and what God had done in Israel's history and setting them free

and it's worth noting also that up to this point in Christ's ministry Jesus

was about to do something that he hadn't done before something that he had

repeated repeatedly warned others not to do for him he was going to allow his

followers to give a public demonstration of his honor so in this passage we see

that Jesus sends two disciples to get an animal a colt and he instructs them in

verse 2 and 3 untie it bring it here if anyone asks you why are you doing this

tell them the Lord needs it and we'll send it back here shortly in Luke's

gospel the disciple unties the animals and some someone questions them the

disciples respond exactly how Jesus asked them to and the people people let

them go verse 7 and 8 when they brought the animal to Jesus they laid their

cloaks on the colt and Jesus sat on it and at this moment in the passage verse

a says many people spread their cloaks on the road while others spread branches

they have cut in the fields there were other folks that cut down branches from

trees and the book of John helps us to understand the kind of branches not just

regular branches but leafy palm branches and they took them laid them along the

streets headed to Jerusalem when I was in when I was on this trip we had a

chance to get baptized in the Jordan River and our bus driver was really cool

because he was positioning himself in this place along the river that wasn't

crowded there wasn't a whole bunch of tourists and stuff like that it wasn't

those places because there's places that you can it's like a six flags ride you

could pay and get in line and they'll take your picture and you'll go like

yeah I want that picture you know so I've been on the rise and you got a

crazy picture and it's like no I don't want to buy that but there's a place

where you pay and you are bus drivers like I'm gonna take you to a place

nobody goes over here we almost got stuck but we went over there and it was

really cool because we're we're getting out and he had palm branches down we got

off the bus and I was like yo this dude really wants a tip but it was a really

cool experience of this he wanted to honor our experience and I was getting

out this bus and going to this and having this holy experience together so

it was a sign of humility a sign of paying homage to this King as he was on

this young coat and it doesn't seem very kingly for a king to show up riding on a

donkey or a stinky animal but for Jesus this was the choice of what I like to

call his royal ride right in an article back in a sports column in 2019 a sports

writer have followed up with the grand entrance of an NBA star Kawhi Leonard

at the time who he was rolling into his NBA games in a 20 year old 1997 Chevy

Tahoe and they said why do you keep this thing going like why do you keep this

thing for him there was a bigger picture he said this he's had this car since

high school and he simply said it's paid off and I like it he said it's paid off

and I like it for him it was you know not what everybody expected that he

should roll up in but for him he had a simpler idea he wasn't projecting that

everybody should do it but for him the value and the sentimental value of a

man everything to him to keep this car that probably was only worth about a

thousand bucks even with some of the updates that he put on he still kept it

simple I even had to Google what it looked like I'm like of course he had to

like pimp it out or something and it was like no I mean he could be riding around

Rock Island we didn't even know right now but again for him there was a bigger

picture with his decision and to with Jesus there's a much bigger picture than

coming adorned with this monetary interest of gold and all these things

something that's helpful to know about reading the Gospels and the book of

Matthew has this story the book of Matthew kind of primarily written for a

Jewish audience but the book of Mark that we're in right now does a lot in

explaining these Jewish customs and some scholars say that the book of Mark was

kind of cast at a wider net to some folks that might not be as familiar with

these Jewish customs but nevertheless it's important because it gives

shoutouts to Old Testament narratives and which a lot of times we can easily in

the New Testament be caught up with these these things that forget about

some of the traditions of the old and how it connects to the bigger picture

and I usually say sometimes you know a lot of times we think of God's story as

okay we got a Genesis the fall then we got sin then we got Jesus and he dies

and he comes back and we all go to heaven there's a story oh we got to come

to church all the time in here just very same thing all right but we miss out on

the bigger picture of how God's story continues to move through his people

even through this grand entrance he's continuing this narrative that started

way in the Old Testament so it's easy for us to miss out on the beauty of how

God partnered with his people in the past to get to this point in the story

today when we think about Moses Noah Ruth

Rahab Naomi Esther David Solomon and how all of this leads to the need for God to

send himself as Jesus the King to show up right here at this specific spot to

begin kind of this transition in the story that's ultimately going to bring

his people forgiveness all of the workings that he done through people

through prophets through everybody through men and women I should say that

loudly gets to this moment where he's coming in and popping up on a donkey

there's a bigger story amen a donkey was a sign of humility and a sign of peace

and a sign of Davidic royalty so when Jesus comes into the city he's not

riding on a horse

it's also safe to note that in Matthew in this part of this in the gospel

Matthew 21 for says Jesus did this to fulfill prophecy if we flip back to the

Old Testament in Zechariah 9 9 it says rejoice greatly daughter Zion shout

daughter Jerusalem see your King comes to you righteous and victorious lowly

and riding on a donkey on a colt the fold of a donkey long before Jesus was

born the prophecy was foretold and every promise that God makes God keeps

amen and we'll get a little bit more of that in a moment and one clue that

people of Jerusalem recognize this connection again is that when they saw

Jesus right on the cold they said hosanna blessed is he who comes in the

name of the Lord blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David hosanna in

the highest they shout out hosanna which means save now the interesting

perspective sometimes I wonder what the group you know there's different people

in this group all these thousands of people but you've ever thought about

what the Romans were thinking or the Rome is thinking as they watch these

festivities because Romans knew how to party they were experts at party city

parades official public events so in the Bible is interesting and ironic that

this is called the triumphal entry but no Roman soldier would have used this

term an official Roman triumph was a big show like for real for real back then

when a Roman general would come back to Rome after a huge victory and they

slaughtered you know they conquered their land another land and captured

folks they were welcomed with an elaborate official parade in the parade

he would exhibit trophies of war and even show off the illustrious prisoners

that they captured the victorious general would ride in a gold chariot and

priests would burn incense in an honor and people would shout his name and

praise him and the parade would end in an arena where the people would be

entertained by watching the captives fight with wild beasts that was a Roman

triumph and this is cool our Lord the king of kings his triumphal entry was

not like that but Jesus flipped the script God's anointed king and Savior but

his conquest was a militaristic amen his victory would be spiritual it was said

that a Roman general had to kill at least 5,000 enemy soldiers to to merit a

triumph but in a few weeks as we heard in the gospel of Mark we hear the

countless stories and stories about how Jesus's love didn't conquer but it

overcame 5,000 it overcame and love infiltrated in the victory of love was

conquering all amen God's love was triumphant and after looking into the

temple where Jesus would return after this this big you know celebratory thing

Jesus left the city and spent the night in Bethany where was safer and quieter

and he spent time praying with his disciples seeking to prepare them for

the difficult week that lay ahead there was this big celebration there's people

that was looking like this ain't no real celebration was this there was other

people that was expecting it there was people that heard you know he was kind

of just messing some other people love like this isn't how it's supposed to be

you have all these mixed emotions but at the end of the day God was setting

stage for this redemptive story that still plays out in our lives today so I

want to close this out with a couple things because if Jesus is king we

should recognize his sovereign sovereignty recognize his true power by laying our

hearts down before him throwing down our lives as surrender and ask Jesus to

govern how we think and how we move and explore what that means for us by

worshiping not just through song but through our lives two final thoughts

here is the first is what does it look for us to to trust Jesus to complete

his story and work in and through us even when it doesn't look like the way

that we thought because there had to be people that this ain't the way this is

not the way and Jesus is amongst them Jesus was there Jesus is like riding

around this thing like I'm here and people like this ain't it and if we're

honest many of us in here would be we have these points in our life where we

would be like this ain't this ain't how it's supposed to be this ain't how it's

supposed to be I really want to bring it home there's a group of poems that I

wrote just small poems and as many of you know I did full-time ministry for 15

or whatever 20 15 years something and there was some some some dark times that

I had just trying to figure out my story as I'm doing ministry and it would seem

on the outside that this is all great man Chris is doing all this great stuff

in the community I have this internal battle where I was like this ain't the

same how I was supposed to look you know my girls are getting older I'm trying to

figure out if I still want to do this it's time for a career change and I'm

like Jesus this where you at where you at I wrote a group of poems I'm gonna

share a couple poems and these poems have never really seen the light of day

and I talked to a good friend he said yo these might not ever be for the stage or

anything but just wrestle with them so these have just been kind of tucked away

for years as I was just crying out to God thinking about my family and

thinking about where we're how am I trying to navigate these things they

don't even have titles I'll just get into this one when parents say I hope

you have kids that turn out just like you what the heck

why are y'all asking God to boomerang our children through pain and trials

just to watch how we have to handle hardships y'all really hope that all that

returns our way like I'm guessing this is which this is why y'all spent so long

teaching us how to catch how to watch what's headed our way how to move

accordingly to extend open arms and when things go down we will pull them close

to our hearts well I see the boomerang coming back y'all and you best believe

my hands are ready I'm racing for impact then you best believe I'll do my best to

catch them as you did catching me one morning I wrote I'm so sad right now my

emotions are at high speed zooming laps within my soul heart racing body

breaking trying to keep up with the speed of me without a lane for help but

a crew that cheers is near and their prayers are fuel they refill my emptiness

as I steer towards another day and I just hope that I can make it because it

seems like there's so many more laps to come

one morning I just woke up sad I didn't feel like God was even there and I said

today I woke up laughing the funny thing is ain't nothing funny about the reality

that I woke up to but I really woke up laughing and now I'm understanding this

genre of this moment in my life I'm living through a season of dark comedy

last poem I'll share just to see my daughter smile through difficulties is a

beautiful thing I see them waiting through clouds of confusion through

foggy futures and unsure steps and I get it I'll walk with you and sometimes

y'all won't even invite me on your journey and I get that but just know it's

difficult to see you pushing through puddles of pain navigating the noise of

thunder yesterday I seen the lightning in your sky strike your footsteps and

spark sorrow my daughters this is all hidden so close to home but please know

that I'm here let me help you take cover just know that I'm near when you see me

just know I ain't even mad at y'all if y'all run towards me and just use me as

your shelter and I promise I'll let God's strength just allow me to shelter

y'all if y'all let me and I read these I don't know if I'll ever get a word award

for best father of the year or nothing like that and I don't want it however I

thought about how our father loves us even more than my cheesy bones our father

is there in our story when it doesn't seem like it in front of thousands and

thousands of Heavenly Father sent his son and there was a lot of people that

didn't even really understand that he was right there amongst them riding

through because for them it wasn't supposed to be like that this might not

have to do with the original Palm Sunday message that you might hear at another

church but I couldn't get past this part because I thought to myself that there's

people that are under my voice that just feel that Jesus ain't riding into their

story at all or doesn't care to how can we learn to trust God to complete the

story within us and through us it's just a question it's a challenge for me as I

was challenged during that time and I am happy to tell you after a few years I

did I'm able to look back and see how how God sent himself in insert himself in

my story when I needed him most but you may be in here in a different place with

God than you were before or wondering what it would look like now that things

have changed in your life and I'm just asking don't give up on allowing God to

finish your story and allowing God to finish what he started it might look

different might not look like what you had hoped but God is there and secondly

how can we trust Jesus to lead our next steps even a little bit more see when

when it came time to take our first child home from the hospital we remember

it was December and we just had a ice storm we stuffed her in this car seat

it looked like she was in a cave because we haven't the car seat was so big it

looked like and we had all this big old onesie and I remember I just wanted to

drive home so slow I'm going to put the hazard lights on you know I'm saying

like you just want life is so fragile at that moment and you went you know I

probably was the most attentive driving ever the next scary day with your kid in

the car when he turned 16 now you're handing over the keys now they're moving

from the passenger seat to the driver's seat it's a scary moment all right well

I experienced that and and we're getting through however it was it was reminding

me of these seasons of my life where there's many times where I recognize I

need to give the keys back to Jesus and allow Jesus to lead because truth be told

we like Jesus in the car like Jesus around right hey turn the radio up hey

Jesus like yo let me ride let me can I don't know where you gonna take me good

try just be here but I don't know if I want you steering the vehicle how can we

get to a place where we can trust Christ leading for brother I know in African

America we say Jesus take the wheel right but in reality what does that mean

for us what does that mean for us to allow Jesus more control I would say

somebody say total control you but maybe this season you're asking how can I

just trust Christ to lead more in relationships or family stuff or

finances or or whatever the case may be for you these little baby steps could

end up in some huge huge victories that you could experience in your life coming

closer to Christ so I would challenge myself and all of us during this season

to think about what we can lay down and then in the area in the arena of control

and as I mentioned first not to forget that Jesus is a part of our story and

how can we have faith and put hope in God to allow him to continue the story

that he would like to work in and through us let's pray God I'm thankful

for your word I'm thankful for your triumphal entry and what that means for

us today as a church I pray God that as we fellowship through song and word and

a little fellowship God that your word may have brought us closer to you and I

know the challenges that that I spoke of I continue to be challenging to myself

and as a church for our prayer God that we can learn what it means to to trust

you with our stories and to hand over the keys to some of the things in our

life God to trust you to navigate I mean we continue to keep our attentive to the

spirit this week as it's Holy Week and we're approaching Easter and maybe just

continue to try our best to be in tune with how you could move and work you

name our prayer amen