A Humble King (Mark 11:1-11)

Okay, we are gonna be in Mark 11 here this morning.

We're gonna be reading verses 1 through 11, which many people refer to as the triumphal entry.

So go ahead and turn there.

And as you are, let's stand for the reading of God's word.

Give me a couple more seconds.

I still hear a couple pages turned.

Mark 11, starting in verse 1, it says, When they approached Jerusalem at Bethphage and Bethany near the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples and told them, Go into the village ahead of you.

As soon as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, on which no one has ever sat.

Untie it and bring it.

If any one says to you, Why are you doing this?

say, The Lord needs it, and will send it back here right away.

So they went and found a colt outside in the street, tied to a by a door.

They untied it, and some of those standing there said to them, What are you doing?

Untying the colt.

They answered them just as Jesus had said.

So they let them go.

They brought the colt to Jesus and threw their clothes on it, and he sat on it.

Many people spread their clothes on the road, and others spread leafy branches cut from the fields.

Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted, 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 heaven.

He went into Jerusalem and into the temple after looking around at everything, since it was already late.

He went out to Bethany with the twelve.

Let's pray.

Lord, we thank you for your word.

Lord, I pray that as we look at these eleven verses, that you would open our eyes and our ears and our hearts and our minds to the things that you have for us today.

Even if it's different for every one of us, Lord, I pray that we would walk away with exactly what it is that you want us to have.

Lord, soften our hearts and change us, make us more and more like you.

Lord, I pray that the ministry of the Holy Spirit would be present here, that you would speak through me.

Lord, that you'd help me to rightly divide your word, and that you would do the work that you desire here today.

We pray these things in Jesus' name.

And everybody said, Amen.

You may be seated.

So last week we saw Jesus teaching once again about how he came to serve and not be served, and to give his life as a ransom for many.

And we saw him continuing to prep his disciples for what was to come once they got to Jerusalem.

Then we left off last week seeing Barnamae get healed of his blindness on the road outside of Jericho.

And it says that he immediately followed Jesus on the road.

And then today in verse 1 it says that they were on their way to the Mount of Olives.

So a little geography lesson here.

Jericho is 846 feet below sea level.

It's the lowest city on the face of the planet.

And the Mount of Olives is 2,500 feet in elevation at its highest point.

And the distance between the Mount of Olives and Jericho is about 20 miles.

So we have this little map up here.

You can see it's a real mountainous region, and I know it's a little pixelated.

But here's Jericho right here, and here's Jerusalem.

So they're on the road, it's about a 20-mile distance and over a 3,000-foot elevation climb that they're coming from basically right next to the Dead Sea up to Jerusalem.

So this is a hike.

They're really climbing.

It's going to be something that's going to take them a little while to do.

But I just wanted to mention real quick: this is a journey that a lot of Jewish people made because they're coming up to Jerusalem for Passover.

And as they're coming up on this long journey, that's when they would sing the Psalms of Ascent.

And that's Psalms 120 through 134, if you're not familiar with those.

So there's a lot of people on the way, they're all climbing up this road, they're heading to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover.

They're singing these songs together.

Now, this passage, as I mentioned earlier, is often mentioned as the triumphal entry.

It's one of the few events that is mentioned in all four of the Gospels.

The last time we had an event that was mentioned in all four of the Gospels was the feeding of the 5,000.

And I point that out because it's something that impacted all of the writers of the Gospels, and it's something that they all saw through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to include in their gospel.

Now, the last little detail before we jump in is there's a lot of prophecy that's being fulfilled here in the short text in these 11 verses.

So as a heads up, I'm gonna kind of nerd out a little bit with prophecy this morning and kind of get into some precise details, but doing it for a reason, because some of these prophecies are so precise, it's just incredible to see that God was foretelling these things 500 years before they actually took place.

And um of these prophecies are so precise that critics used to say there's just no way that those prophecies were written before the life of Jesus.

It must have been some big ruse where they actually wrote about the life of Jesus and tried to picture it as it happened before Jesus.

But the thing was, and one of the big things that kind of helps out this argument is they found the Dead Sea Scrolls.

And when they found the Dead Sea Scrolls, that legitimized that these prophecies were actually taking place several hundred years before Jesus was actually born.

So it's gonna get a little technical at moments, but this isn't a super long message.

So just I'm encouraging you if you need another cup of coffee, just go get it right now.

That's what you need to kind of wake yourself up a little bit.

Um, but really pay attention because if you do, I think it'll just be mind-blowing to kind of see the God that we worship for telling these things 500 years before they actually happen.

So let's start with verse one.

It says, when they approached Jerusalem at Bethphage and Bethany, near the Mount of Olives.

So I'm just gonna stop right there.

Bethphage, Bethany, Mount of Olives, these were all just east of Jerusalem.

And the Mount of Olives is a common scene in Scripture.

We see that King David fled by the way of Mount of Olives when he was running from his son Absalom when Absalom tried to overthrow David's kingdom.

Later, David's son, King Solomon, we see him actually setting up idols and worshiping on the Mount of Olives.

In Ezekiel 11, 23, Ezekiel prophesied about the glory of the Lord departing from Jerusalem and resting on the mountain east of Jerusalem, which many assume is the Mount of Olives.

And then we see Jesus in this location many times as well in his life.

Uh and we're going to see him there three times in the week leading up to his crucifixion.

So here today in the Triumphal Entry, we'll see him give what's called uh, no, I mean, we see him here in the triumphal entry, heading up to the Mount of Olives.

But then we're also gonna see in chapter 13, he's gonna give what's called the Olivet Discourse, which takes place right there.

And we'll see his betrayal at the Garden of Gethsemane, which is on the Mount of Olives as well.

And then after Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection, the Mount of Olives is where Jesus is going to ascend into heaven.

And we see that in Acts 1.12.

And then in Zechariah 14.4, we see that this will also be the place that Jesus sets his feet down when he returns in his second coming.

So obviously, the Mount of Olives is an important place in Scripture, but it's also an important place to Jesus.

We see him there many times.

It seems like this might be one of his favorite spots to camp.

Um, so like I said, it's an important place, and that's where the setting is taking place right now.

They're heading up, coming in to the region of the Mount of Olives.

Look at the second half of verse 1.

It says, He sent two of his disciples and told them, Go into the village ahead of you.

As soon as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there on which no one has ever sat.

Untie it and bring it.

So there's two schools of thought here.

That one, Jesus had prearranged with the owner of this cult that it would be available at this time for his use.

Second school of thought is that Jesus' authority is just on full display here.

You know, he knows the beginning from the end, and he didn't need to make arrangements, and he just knew what was going to happen, so he sent his disciples off to do that.

And the word cult here is important because what it means is either a young horse or a young donkey.

And the reason that that's important is because this is a humble animal.

It's not a conquering war horse, it's a borrowed, humble animal.

Now, I want to take a quick detour regarding that to point something out.

You know, just a few weeks ago, Ben gave us the sermon on the rich young ruler and addressed how it was the possessions of that young man that kept him from completely surrendering to the to God.

And I want us, in contrast, to look at Jesus.

He borrowed somebody's lunch to feed the 5,000.

He borrowed a coin to show Caesar's picture as a sermon illustration.

He had Peter catch a fish with a coin in its mouth to pay their taxes.

Here today we see he borrowed a colt for the triumphal entry.

And then we're gonna see shortly that he borrows a tomb when he dies.

And I point that out to show that there's nothing that's tying Jesus down that's related to this earth.

And I was trying to think about it.

Do we know of anything that Jesus owned as a possession?

The only thing I can think of is like maybe is clothes.

But beyond that, we don't really see anything of like, oh, this was Jesus' favorite thing, and he took it with him everywhere he went or anything like that.

He was just free from being tied down to anything on this earth.

So he borrows a cult.

He's a king without a horse.

And it just makes me go back and think about a lot of the sermons we've we've already had, but the last shall be first.

And he's just this perfect example of that.

And one thing that we need to consider too is the cult was big enough to bear Jesus' weight, but it was young enough to never be broken.

It had never been ridden before.

And I like to think of it as if he can quiet a storm, then he could probably tame an animal in a moment, you know.

I grew up on a ranch and I jumped on more than a few animals that had never been ridden before.

And every time I ended up on the ground very dirty.

But here's Jesus.

He takes this unbroken colt and he jumps on and he rides it like it's no big deal.

And by choosing this animal, Jesus is fulfilling the prophecy that we see in Zechariah 9:9.

Zechariah 9:9

And you can write that down if you're taking notes, but I'll just read it to you.

It says, Rejoice greatly, daughter Zion.

Shout in triumph, daughter Jerusalem, look, your king is coming to you.

He is righteous and victorious, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

Our humble king.

And now we know what the disciples didn't know.

That Jesus will come back riding on a white horse to judge and to conquer, like we see in Revelation.

But in Jesus' first coming, we need to remember that he came as a lamb to make peace with God for us.

As we just sang, he's the lion and the lamb.

Revelation, we see the lion.

In the gospels, we see the lamb.

But in his second coming, he will be a ferocious roaring lion.

But that's not yet in the Gospels.

That's not Jesus' time for that yet.

Today we're gonna see the lamb.

We're gonna see a humble king riding into Jerusalem on a donkey.

Jesus goes on with his instructions to the disciples in verse 3.

It says, If anyone says to you, Why are you doing this?

Say, the Lord needs it and will send it back here right away.

So again, prearranged, or this is an example of Jesus' authority.

And I just kind of picture, sorry, I'm gonna give you a little picture of what goes on in my brain.

But the I just kind of picture Jesus telling the disciples, you know, if anybody asks you, just kind of go like this and say, These are not the cults that you're looking for, you know, or something like that.

But either way, Jesus foresees what might happen, and it does happen.

Verse 4.

So they went on and found a colt outside in the street, tied by a door.

They untied it, and some of those standing there said to them, What are you doing?

Untying the colt.

They answered them just as Jesus had said, so they let them go.

You know, and I wonder if the disciples are just like, Wow, that actually worked.

Whatever Jesus just told us.

Pardon me wonders too, if maybe they've been around Jesus for so long that they weren't surprised.

Like, yeah, whatever he says, it just happens, and we just kind of, you know, go along with the story.

But verse 7.

They brought the colt to Jesus and threw their clothes on it, and he sat on it.

Many people spread their clothes on the road, and others spread leafy branches cut from the fields.

So remember, clothes in this time were not like they are right now.

They were extremely valuable.

And to have two sets of clothes meant you were doing pretty well for yourself.

So this is not, oh well, you know, I'll throw my jacket down, I wasn't using it, I've got four more at home.

It was really kind of a sacrifice of praise to do this, to take your garment and to throw it under the feet of an animal on this dirt road with who knows what else was on it.

And it would, you know, you might not get it back, or you might get it back extremely or permanently damaged.

But these people are basically laying down the equivalent of a red carpet today for Jesus, throwing down their very valuable garments down before this animal.

So, verse 9, it says, Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

So I want to stop for a second and just talk about that word Hosanna.

We see it in worship songs, we saw it in worship songs this morning, and kind of dig into kind of the origin of that word because it's it's unique in the way that it kind of serves a dual purpose.

So it is a Greek word that was adapted from a Jewish word, you know, at first, but is basically an exclamation of praise.

But these people are quoting from Psalm 118, 25, where it says, Save us, we pray, O Lord.

Or some translations will say, Save now.

And the idea is a cry to bring about salvation.

Save now, save us, Lord.

So Psalms is written in Hebrew, and these people translated the Hebrew for save us or save now to the Greek word Hosanna.

That's the long way of saying, it's a way of praising God by asking him to save now or to save us.

So I point that out because it's interesting that it is praise, but it's also a prayer of petition at the same time.

Praise in the sense that Jesus has the ability as the Messiah to save, but also a petition for him to do so.

And the interesting thing here is that Jesus lets it happen.

He lets this praise come and he doesn't stop it.

And it's interesting because we haven't seen that happen in Luke yet.

And I want to just point out something that we find in Luke's gospel.

That's Luke 19, uh, 39, and it gives us a little bit more detail of what's happening here.

And it says, Some of the Pharisees from the crowd told him, Teacher, rebuke your disciples because they were praising him.

He answered, I tell you, if they were to keep silent, the stones would cry out.

You know, we've seen over and over again through the book of Mark, Jesus keeps telling people, don't tell anybody what happened, you know, after he heals them.

Or he'll he'll tell them, you know, if they confess that he's the Messiah, he's like, you know what, don't tell anybody, my time hasn't come.

My hour has not come.

Because Jesus knew if he began to be worshipped too early, it would have sped up the pace at which the religious leaders would have tried to kill him.

And there was an appointed time where Jesus' hour would come.

And it was a time that was appointed by God and then prophesied through Daniel.

We won't get into too much of the nitty-gritty, but let me sum up Daniel chapter 9 for us here today.

Daniel 9 · chapter mention

And Joshua, you might throw in that slide up.

I want to read Daniel chapter 9, starting in verse 25.

Daniel 9 · chapter mention

It says, Know and understand this.

From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem.

So that's the decree given by Arta Xerxes in Nehemiah's time.

Until an anointed one, the ruler, so that's Jesus the Messiah, will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks.

So weeks in Hebrew, that word, the Hebrew word right there, actually just means a period of seven.

Not necessarily week in the way that we think of it.

And we're gonna see that it actually means year.

So uh week means period of seven.

It will be rebuilt with a plaza and a moat, but in difficult times.

And we see all of that taking place in the book of Nehemiah.

So I'm gonna throw up another slide here.

I know you didn't plan on coming to church to do math, but this is kind of some interesting stuff that we see in these prophecies.

So, as I said, so there's seven periods of seven plus sixty-two periods of seven.

So that's 69 periods of seven that we see.

So 69 times those seven periods, and as I said earlier, we're talking about years here, equals 483 years.

So 483 years times 360, now this prophecy takes place in Babylon.

So we're using the Babylonian calendar, which was based on 360 days in a year.

So if we multiply the 483 times the Babylonian calendar, that gives us 173,880 days.

So that's from when the decree to restore Jerusalem is done until the Messiah makes his appearance in Jerusalem.

Now, the thing is, um, from that day it's supposed to be 173,880 days.

So that we should be able to just multiply all that and add it, you know, and then figure out exactly when the triumphal entry came.

But the problem is there were actually four decrees that were given at the time from Babylon to restore Jerusalem, and they're about all a year apart.

So which which one do we start at?

You know, to start that clock ticking.

Um there's lots of calculations that you have to take into place considering um the different calendars and leap years, and the Babylonian calendar actually had leap months instead of leap years, and then that was transferred over to the Hebrew calendar, and then how do we look at it through the calendar that we have today based on the 365, you know, with the leap year and all that kind of stuff?

So there's just a lot of things that you have to take into account.

And a lot of people have actually put their life work to trying to figure out the calendar systems, going back that far, how that would work, and what day exactly does that bring us to after the 173,880 days.

Told you it's gonna get a little technical and complicated today.

But hang in there with us.

But anyway, what it does, no matter who calculates it, whatever system you use, whatever calendar, every calculation brings the triumphal entry to between 30 and 33 AD.

Which is exactly where most scholars place the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Right in there.

So no matter which one you use, that it comes down to that three-year window.

And I think if God wanted us to know the exact day, he would have told us the exact day.

But it's pretty cool to know that this was prophesied by Daniel 560 plus years before it happened.

It was 90 plus years before the clock even started ticking on the 1730 days.

So there was just so much in here, and then we end up 560 years later in our text here today.

From Daniel, then to the Babylonians, and then from the Babylonians to the triumphal entry, can narrow it down to a three year window.

That's why people were trying to say, you can't believe this, you know, that's just a little too crazy to do that.

But then the Dead Sea Scrolls came, and we could see that all these prophecies that had taken place.

Place in Isaiah and in the prophets were actually that old, and God had foretold all of this that far in advance.

So I think when we look at the book of Mark, and Jesus is telling people to be silent and to keep things to themselves, or when he would say that his hour has not come, or the hour has not come, there was a specific day where these things were to be fulfilled.

And it was this day that we're looking at right here in Mark 11.

And finally, we get to see Jesus being worshiped and exalted and adored.

His hour had finally come.

And I only imagine in this moment the disciples thinking, finally, we've been waiting for this for so long.

This is the Messiah that we've been waiting for.

Now things are going to go down the way we've been trying to convince Jesus that they should go down.

He's finally listening to us.

Again, speculation, but I could just imagine, like, finally, this time's come.

This is what we've been asking for for three years.

But then I also wonder how many of these same people that are right now shouting Hosanna will within the week be yelling, Crucify Him.

This was the Sunday before Jesus' crucifixion.

So my question is, was this true worship?

Or was this just an emotional response?

Because they thought the Messiah that they wanted was coming.

Was this honest worship?

I think it was.

But I think it was honest worship that was without the knowledge that needs to accompany it.

You know, the whole worshiping in spirit and in truth.

These people were worshiping the Messiah, but was it the same Messiah that they thought they were worshiping?

Which makes me ask the question you know, do we worship the God that we want him to be?

Or do we worship the God that is?

And I think that is why God, well, I know, that is why God's word is so important.

It's the element of truth that informs our worship.

To make sure that we are worshiping the God of the Bible and not the God that we want him to be.

Verse 10 may give us some insight into the God that these people, I think, hoped that they were worshiping.

Look at verse 10.

It says, Blessed is the coming kingdom of our Father David, Hosanna in the highest heaven.

Their references to an earthly king and kingdom in King David.

Though the words are true and that they come from Psalm 118, I get the impression that these people couldn't see past the misinformed notion that the Messiah was going to come into Jerusalem and overthrow the Romans.

And I think they see the Messiah, or they're missing the Messiah that has much bigger things in mind.

He had much more important plans than just the immediate of the Romans.

He had much more eternal plans that they just couldn't see.

They were so focused on the temporal that they couldn't see the eternal that the Messiah was actually coming in to handle.

Now, David Guzick in his commentary gives us a great historical perspective of the triumphal entry.

So I want to read that to you.

He says, We call this event the triumphal entry, but it was a strange kind of triumph.

If you spoke of Jesus' triumphal entry to a Roman, they would have laughed at you.

For them, a triumphal entry was an honor granted to a Roman general who won a complete and decisive victory and had killed at least 5,000 enemy soldiers.

When the general returned to Rome, they had an elaborate parade.

First came the treasures captured from the enemy, then the prisoners.

His armies marched in unit by unit, and finally the general rode in a golden chariot pulled by magnificent horses.

Priests burned incense in honor, and the crowd shouted his name and praised him.

The procession ended at the arena, where some of the prisoners were thrown to wild animals for the entertainment of the crowd.

That was a triumphal entry.

Not a Galilean peasant sitting on a few coats set out on a pony.

Jesus came as the Messiah to Jerusalem, not as a mighty general to conquer the Romans.

He came first to look at the standing of the people of God and to make his inspection.

So imagine what this scene would have looked like.

If Jesus would have told his disciples and his followers, I want a triumphal entry into Jerusalem.

You guys just go set it up however you see fit.

You make the preparations.

You guys go, This is what I want, a triumphal entry, you guys just set it up.

I don't think it would have looked anything like what we see here in Mark.

I see them getting a stallion and recruiting, you know, people to fight the Romans, you know, in all the pomp and circumstance like the Romans did.

We learn in John's account, in his gospel account of the triumphal entry that his disciples did not understand these things at first.

However, when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about him and that they had done these things to him.

So in this scene, the disciples are still confused.

They still don't know exactly what's going on.

They're participating fully, but they still don't get the magnitude of what Jesus is doing.

But Jesus makes sure that this triumphal entry is done correctly and it's done humbly on a donkey.

He humbly chooses a humble animal that is not even his own.

And people use what they have on them for a saddle and for a red carpet.

So even his triumphal entry is extremely humble.

And in Luke's gospel, chapter 19, verse 41, there's a detail that Mark doesn't mention that takes place in between verses 10 and 11, right where we are.

So I want to interject it because I think it's really important.

So Luke chapter 19, verse 41 says this as he approached and saw the city, he wept for it, saying, If you knew this day, what would bring peace?

Luke 19:41

But now it is hidden from your eyes.

For the days will come on you when your enemies will build a barricade around you, surround you, and hem you in on every side.

They will crush you and your children among you to the ground, and they will not leave one stone on another in your midst, because you did not recognize the time when God visited you.

Jesus wept over Jerusalem.

Even though he was surrounded by a crowd of people that were worshiping him, and he still says, Because you did not recognize the time when God visited you.

The crowd is all saying that he's God right now.

But when Jesus is arrested and on trial and being crucified, it's gonna be hard to find a single person in Jerusalem that still thinks that.

They did not recognize the time when God visited them.

Jerusalem and the Israelites wanted Rome overthrown and thought that that would finally bring peace.

But a government overthrown only ever brings temporary peace.

If that even.

Man failed in the garden all those years ago with Adam and Eve and sinned against God.

And ever since, that sin has run rampant and has brought separation between us and God.

And Jesus came to do something about that.

Jesus came to bring true peace between God and man.

That's why 2 Corinthians 5.18 says that everything is from God who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation.

Think about that.

Jesus came to reconcile us to God.

And thankfully, Jesus never lost sight of the eternal.

Never lost sight of his mission and why he came.

He never got caught up in what everything, what everybody was hoping that he would do.

Think about what would have happened if Jesus had ridden into Jerusalem on a white horse.

Think about what would have happened if he overthrew the Romans and took control of Jerusalem like people were hoping.

I think everyone in Israel at that point would have said, sign me up, I'll follow that guy, he's the Messiah.

But then what?

What happens after that?

That would be a great temporary victory.

But then what?

Well, if that's how it went down, we would still be offering animal sacrifices and hoping with all that we are that that was enough to bring reconciliation between us and God.

So I want each one of us to wrestle with this question here today.

What in the temporary, what in the temporal is keeping us from recognizing Jesus as our Savior, as our God, as our source of everything that we need.

Think on that for a second.

What is it, even if you're a believer, what is it that might be keeping us from fully surrendering everything to God?

You know, it's my prayer that Jesus' words, that he just said, you did not recognize the time when God visited you, that that could never be said about a single one of us.

And that that could never be said about our church as a whole.

May we worship the God that is, and not the God that we want him to be.

Let's look at verse 11.

It says, When he went into Jerusalem and into the temple, after looking around at everything, since it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.

So in Malachi chapter three, and you can look at that on your own time if you'd like to, there's a prophecy of the Messiah coming to his temple.

And many think that this is that exact fulfillment of that prophecy.

Jesus' inspection of all that is going on in the temple at that time.

Then we see Jesus spends a whole day and night considering all that he saw, and then he comes back to cleanse the temple, to overturn the tables and to chase the money changers out.

And that is after he saw, he did his inspection, just like it's prophesied in Jeremiah 7.11.

It says, Has this house which bears my name become a den of robbers in your view?

Yes, I too have seen it.

Now, I don't want to spoil too much about next week's sermon, but this relates back to worshiping God in a way that he does not desire.

These money changers and merchants were using the worship of God to make a profit.

Passover was less than a week away, and a ton of people were coming into Jerusalem.

A ton of people were already in Jerusalem, a ton were on their way, and these people were ready to make their profit.

And next week we'll see that Jesus refers to this verse that I just read out of Jeremiah 7.11 when he does come and cleanse the temple.

So Jesus does his inspection, it says in verse 11, and then he goes out to Bethany with the twelve to return the next day, as we're going to see next week, to put things in order in the temple.

So my question is: what's our takeaway from all of this?

As we look at this triumphal entry, as we look at all of this prophecy and all of these cross-references, I know it was a lot, but what is our takeaway?

Well, I think the first thing is we serve a humble king.

We serve a servant leader.

We serve a God that knows the beginning from the end, and he proves it over 300 times in the life of Jesus through prophecy in the Old Testament.

We need to worship God for who he is.

That's the third thing.

So the first is we worship a humble king.

Second is God knows the beginning from the end.

And third, we need to worship God for who he is.

And not who we want him to be, or not who we think he should be.

You know, having faith that he knows what he's doing, even when we think he should overthrow the Romans.

And instead, we think that he's leading his disciples into the teeth of the enemy.

It's in those moments that we need to have the most trust in God.

You know, oftentimes we don't know what's going on.

Oftentimes we don't know the why behind what God is doing, and we don't see the beginning from the end like he does.

But we do know that his plan is not only for good, but that his plan is perfect.

We just need to keep saying yes to his leading and be less concerned with the why.

Those are the the biggest things that we can take from this.

Isn't it an incredible, amazing God that we get to worship?

Let's pray.

God, I thank you so much for your word.

Thank you so much for the gift of Jesus.

Thank you so much that you didn't listen to the disciples and to and to the to Jerusalem, Lord, at that time that wanted a conquering, overthrowing military leader when you came to be the Lamb, when you came to bring peace between us and between God.

And we thank you so much, God, for that gift that you gave us in Jesus Christ.

Help us to never grow callous to all that you've done for us, but help us to stand in awe of you, that you desire us that much, that you want us in heaven with you for eternity.

Lord, we thank you that you know the beginning from the end.

Help us to trust in that, help us to build our faith in knowing that and allowing you to live in and through us, to move in and through us.

And I pray that we would just have a ready yes on our lips for whatever it is that you're asking us to do.

We pray these things in Jesus' name.