Palm Sunday | John 12:9–23

You're listening to the Bridgetown Church Podcast with

Pastor Casey Kendall, where our vision is Jesus, our mission is

people, and our cause is love. Thanks for tuning in.

Let's dive in. All right, Bridgetown Church, my

passion. Let's get to teaching and

preaching this morning. We'll be in John chapter 12 as

John 12 · chapter mention

well in Zechariah 9. Keep a finger there.

But John, chapter 12, as you guys turn there, I wanted to let

John 12 · chapter mention

you know about next week, back on that table just before the

exit. We have a bunch of these Flyers

for our Easter service, our Resurrection Day service here

next week. And I want each one of you to

grab a handful of these and hand them out to somebody that you

know that needs to hear the good news about Jesus Christ, the

gospel. 2 reasons next week. Next week is our founding

pastor's last sermon here and I know that he's so excited to

share the good news of the empty tomb with anybody that would be

here. So 2 reasons come next week as

we send off and Commission Pastor Casey and his family to

go plant churches in Tennessee. And then secondly, come

celebrate the risen and resurrected Jesus.

So be here next week with the family member, a friend and

enemy, anybody that you know that needs to hear the good news

about the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Amen. Amen.

OK, so let's begin. Our sermon text this morning is

John chapter 12, starting in verses 9.

John 12 · chapter mention

And we'll go through verse 23 and I'll be reading out of the

ESV version. Hear the word of the Lord.

When the large crowd of the Jews learned that Jesus was there,

they came not only on account of him, but also to see Lazarus,

whom he had raised from the dead.

So the chief priests made plans to put Lazarus to death as well,

because on account of him, many of the Jews were going away and

believing in Jesus. Verse 12 The next day the large

crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to

Jerusalem, so they took branches of palm trees and went out to

meet him, crying out Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the

name of the Lord, even the king of Israel.

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

It is written, fear not daughter of Zion, behold, your king is

coming, sitting on a donkey's colt.

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

Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had

been written about him and had been done to him.

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

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

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

heard he had done this sign. So the Pharisees said to one

another, You see that you're gaining nothing.

Look, the world has gone after him.

Verse 20 Now among those who went up to worship at the feast

were some Greeks. So these came to Philip, who was

from Bethsaida in Galilee and asked him, Sir, we wish to see

Jesus. Philip went and told Andrew.

Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus, and Jesus answered them.

The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.

This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God for His word.

Let's pray. Father, we come before you, we

love you, we love your word, we love your Son, we love your

present. Holy Spirit.

Speak to me and through me to your people.

Jesus, you are our shepherd. We are your sheep.

Give us ears to hear your voice and eyes to see you for your

glory in Jesus name, Amen. So I want to take you back to

November 2019, just before a pandemic hit.

November 2019, my life changed forever.

No, it wasn't anything like I got married.

It wasn't anything like I lost a loved one or something like

that. My life changed because I

finally conceded. After years and years and years

of hesitation, I finally conceded that I can't see

anything. My vision's blurry.

November 2019. I was tired of blurred vision,

tired of headaches, tired of squinting.

People think, you know, that I, I I'm mad at them.

Well, I can't see you. I finally conceded.

I need to do something about my vision.

I need, I need to correct this vision.

So I went to Kaiser to get my first pair of glasses.

I'm sitting there with the optometrist.

And she said she asked. All right, so how do you want to

approach this? You do need your, your, your

vision's terrible. You need some correction here.

Would you like to do glasses or contact lenses?

Now, a funny thing about me, you can just so you get to know me,

don't ever touch my eyes. I, I, it makes my skin crawl.

I, I see people use eye drops and I'm like, oh, it's like

nails on a chalkboard for me. I don't like touching my eyes.

It's just something that I can't do.

So I opted for glasses for glasses.

So from November 2019 onward, for the rest of my life, I'm

rocking these bad boys so I can see your beautiful faces.

What? What happened was these glasses,

they corrected my vision. Before then, everything was

blurry. I couldn't tell who I was

talking to. It was dangerous for me to drive

at night. I couldn't make out my

surroundings. I needed my vision corrected.

These glasses brought clarity to my vision.

They brought a vividness and a vibrancy to the my surrounding

life that I hadn't seen before. It's like, oh wow, the sky is

blue. You know, These glasses

corrected my vision and they started to redefine my identity.

And what I mean by that is not like my physical features.

Whenever I get up in the morning, just wake up, crawl out

of bed, I look at myself in the mirror and I'm missing my

glasses and I'm like, I can't remember what I look like

without glasses. I don't wear these just for blue

light or just look cool. I literally can't see you.

So when I wear my glasses, they correct my vision.

They bring a clarity. They're now a part of my

identity. This is this is who I am now.

Today brings us to the beginning of Passion Week.

Where are you going with this, Chris, with your vision?

Today's the beginning of Passion Week.

It is Palm Sunday. This is a day where we remember

the final week of Jesus earthly ministry pre cross.

In just a couple days 2000, some odd years ago, Jesus is going to

go to the cross to suffer and die for you and me and then

three days later he's going to rise again from the dead.

Today, Palm Sunday, we celebrate and remember the triumphal

entry. Now, the reason this is such a

big deal is Passion Week. In the same way that my visions

brought, not that my glasses brought my vision clarity.

Passion Week brings clarity to the entire ministry of Jesus.

We must understand Passion Week, the Holy Week, to understand who

Jesus was for these three years that he's been ministering up to

this point. This week defines our identity

of what it means to be a Christian.

This is a pivotal moment. This is the bedrock of the

Christian faith Passion Week. You see what happens at the

triumphal entry on Palm Sunday. Jesus is no longer ministering

in secret. Up to this point, he's been

ministering outside of Jerusalem and surrounding regions in

secret, telling people I healed you, but go, don't go tell

anybody. Yet The triumphal entry, if you

will, is his first time his ministry is put on display.

He accepts the praises of people calling him the King of Israel.

This is where his ministry goes global, if you will.

And the anticipation of the people present at the triumphal

entry, it just swells with excitement, swells with

expectation. So my question to you,

Bridgetown Church, how is your vision of Jesus today?

Who do you see him as today? You see, up to this point, the

Beatitudes, Matthew chapter 5, the parables that he's been

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

talking about, the miracles he's been doing, Jesus this whole

time has been teaching about a Kingdom, a coming Kingdom,

saying that he's the king. He tells his followers, here's

how I would like you to act in my Kingdom.

He's been preaching and teaching for the past three years.

Jesus claims to be a king, but exactly what kind of king is he?

What does his Kingdom look like? The triumphal entry is him

putting to practice everything that he's preached the past

three years. All those miracles that people

witnessed, all those parables that they heard, all those

teachings on the mount. Jesus is actually living it at

the triumphal entry. So this morning as we study the

triumphal entry, I want you to think about this.

The triumphal entry displays the upside down nature of the

Kingdom of God. It's completely different from

any man made Kingdom or empire of of the past or the present.

Jesus Kingdom is different and he's a different king.

He's a humble king. He's a humble king.

So where are we going on our sermon?

I got 3 points for you with one meditation at the end.

Point #1 is going to be the nature of the Kingdom, .2 is the

reaction of the people, and then .3 the glory of the cross.

And then we'll meditate on what Passion Week represents at the

end. So here we go, point #1 the

nature of the Kingdom. Picking up in verse 12 of John

John 12 · chapter mention

chapter 12, it reads the next day the large crowd that had

come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem.

So they took the branches of palm trees and went out to meet

him, crying out Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of

the Lord, even the king of Israel.

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

written. Fear not, daughter of Zion,

behold, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey's cult.

We'll stop there. What's happening here?

Jesus has arrived at Jerusalem to a triumph.

That's an actual word, triumph. This isn't just an adjective,

it's an it's a noun. It's a thing, a triumph.

Up to this point, his ministry has been deliberately cryptic

and oriented toward the surrounding regions of

Jerusalem. But here, in the triumphal

entry, his ministry is no longer secret.

As he rides the back of a donkey, the crowds press in on

him and they hail him as the king of Israel.

What is a triumph? Let's put this in context.

What is happening here? Well, historically, here's what

a triumph was. It was a victory celebration for

a conquest. A returning king or a military

general would hold a parade, a conquest parade as they returned

from the battlefield back into the the empire, back into the

heart of the nation. They would return with the

spoils of war. They were to turn with the

spoils of war. The conquering king or general

would have captives in tow, all the booty and the bounty that

they got from the, the, the, the nation that they subjugated.

And this was intended to galvanized the people to

galvanized the people and the nation.

With that backdrop, what we see here, Jesus, his triumphal

entry, is strikingly different. If this is a triumph,

historically, this is a pretty bad triumph.

The people are waving palm branches.

There's no military around. There is no captives following

Jesus. There's no treasure or bounty.

He's on a donkey. He this is not a historical

triumph. So what's surprising is Jesus

rides a donkey into Jerusalem. Jesus, do you know how triumphs

are supposed to work? Man, this is not a good military

strategy if you're trying to galvanized the people about who

you are and what you're doing. If you're going public with your

ministry that you're a king, why are you riding a donkey?

You should be on a War Horse, a chariot.

Your Calvary should be behind you with the heads of your

enemies. This isn't a power move in to

say the least. You will not find this strategy

in Alexander the Great's repertoire.

The greatest military genius the Western world has ever seen.

What he would do was subjugate, consolidate, and then dominate

and continue the trend. That's how he conquered the

known world at the time. You will not find the strategy

in the Art of War. You will not find the strategy

in the Art of the Deal. You will not find this strategy

about Jesus humbly riding a donkey into Jerusalem to

galvanized the people. Where's the pageantry in the

pomp? And you guys think a couple

weeks back we had to the Olympic opening and closing ceremonies,

right? And I think just a couple weeks

ago as well, we had the, it was at the Oscars, the red carpet,

all the pomp and the pageantry. That's how you throw a party,

Jesus like that. Where is your red carpet?

Where is your opening and closing ceremonies?

Where is your captives? Where's the spoils of war?

Jesus riding into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey to the

praises of nobodies, to the praises of the poor, the people

who saw him raised Lazarus from the dead, the people that Jesus

chose to hang out with. This is an unorthodox triumph,

to say the least. Now what I want to focus on real

quick is what the crowds were shouting.

What exactly were they saying? The anticipation and and

excitement of the crowd, it's palpable.

It's getting out of hand to the point where the religious

leaders are getting worried. We got to stop this.

These people are crying out so loud and what they're doing,

what they're crying out, they're actually quoting from the halal.

What is the halal? It's a song book in the Psalms

beginning with Psalm 118. Halal.

Halal means praise, praise. So it's a song book.

It's a song book of praise from the Psalms.

You think about what the word Hallelujah means halal praise

Yah at the end means Yahweh, praise Yahweh.

That's all Hallelujah means halal, the halal.

It's a Jewish liturgical song book of praise.

So in the in the same way that our worship team was lifting up

praises to God, songs that you guys already know like the back

of your hand, the halal to the Jew of the day.

These are songs they know that they would sing on their way to

temple. Psalm 118 is where the crowd is

drawing these statements from. They're crying out Hosanna,

Hosanna. Blessed is he who comes in the

name of the Lord. This is Psalm 118, verse 25

Psalms 118:25–26

through 26. Psalm 118 over time began to be

a messianic affirmation. The Jew would lift up praise to

God for the expected Messiah, the expected king to come.

And Psalm 118, blessed is the one who comes in the name of the

Lord talks about this one divine person who would come and bear

the name of Yahweh by the Jews, quoting that from the halal

Psalm 118, they are saying this guy, this Jesus, he is that

Messianic figure. He is that one.

We believe He's the one that bears the name of Yahweh.

Now it's interesting because what John records in John

John 12 · chapter mention

chapter 12 is that a line that's added, It's actually not in

Psalm 118, and it's the very end of what the crowd shouts.

They say Hosanna, hosanna, Hosanna.

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, yes, even the

king of Israel, the king of Israel.

This is not in Psalm 118. This is an addition that the

crowd is shouting because they recognize what who Jesus is,

what he's done. Nobody can raise the dead a

chapter before without God being with him.

Nobody can do this without him bearing the name of the of

Yahweh. So it's interesting that the

Jews, they proclaim him as king of Israel.

And guess what? Jesus does not tell them to

stop. He continues writing.

He says, yeah. Elsewhere in the Gospels, a

different gospel, the Pharisees get upset at this phrase and

they tell Jesus, Jesus, tell your followers to stop saying

that you're the king of Israel. And what does he tell them?

He responds with, even if I were to tell these to be quiet, the

stones would cry out who I am. He's the messianic king.

So Psalm 118 by the Jews reciting this Psalm, this

Hallel, they're making an affirmation that Jesus, we know

who you are. You are the messianic king,

You're the promised one. They recognize who he is, yet

still begs the question, what exactly was the Messiah supposed

to do? Who was this King's supposed to

be? Well, Jesus responds.

John responds. Rather, he writes this phrase

just as it is written, just as it is written Previously, I

asked you guys to turn to Zechariah Chapter 9, so we'll

Zechariah 9 · chapter mention

turn there right now. Zechariah Chapter 9 starting in

Zechariah 9 · chapter mention

verse 9. This verse that John quotes just

as it is written is from Zechariah Chapter 9.

Zechariah 9 · chapter mention

And here's how Zechariah Chapter 9 verse 9 reads.

Zechariah 9:9

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion, shout aloud.

O daughter of Jerusalem, behold, your king is coming to you

righteous and having salvation. Is he humble and mounted on a

donkey, on a cult the full of a donkey?

We'll stop there for now. John sees what's happening and

he, as the author says, do you know what's happening?

Let's go back to Zechariah Chapter 9, the Old Testament.

Zechariah 9 · chapter mention

Through the prophet Zechariah, God prophecies of Israel's

coming Messiah. He states that this future king

would arrive in righteousness and bring salvation to Israel.

This promised one would come in humility, demonstrated by riding

a lowly donkey. And here's the interesting thing

about the donkey. It's not even a mature, full

grown adult donkey. It's a cult.

It's a cult. It's unbroken.

It's never even seen the workforce.

Yet Jesus rides a baby donkey a little Burrow into Jerusalem in

a triumph. This is so upside down.

This is so unorthodox. Interesting thing, Zechariah was

written and prophesied 500 years prior.

We date Zechariah to around 8 BC, 500 to 400.

Around 500 years prior, John sees fulfilment.

He, the Bible student that he is, he sees fulfilment and

what's happening, the scene, Oh my gosh, the light, the light

bulb goes off. He's riding a donkey just like

Zechariah prophesied. He is the messianic king.

Jesus responds to the people hailing him as king by

fulfilling scripture. And isn't it interesting, All

throughout Jesus ministry he has a knack for doing this.

He keeps saying over and over and over again, permitted to be

so, so that scripture is fulfilled.

Scripture is fulfilled. I'm fulfilling scripture.

I'm completely obedient to the Father.

I'm completely obedient to the Father.

The scriptures, you search for the scriptures because you think

that in them you have life, but it's they that testify of me.

I'm going to fulfill the scriptures.

Here's a beautiful thing about Jesus riding a donkey.

In the synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, Jesus

favorite title is the Son of Man.

John's a little bit different. In his book, he calls him the

Son of God, right? Because we're painting Jesus as

deity. He's different.

But in Matthew, Mark and Luke, his favorite title for himself

is the Son of Man. The Son of Man title finds roots

from Daniel Chapter 7. Daniel Chapter 7 where God

Daniel 7 · chapter mention Daniel 7 · chapter mention

seated on his throne, it says the Ancient of Days, God seated

on his throne and one like the Son of Man arise before the

Ancient of Days, rise before Yahweh to receive a Kingdom, the

Kingdom that will have no end. He's the king.

Here's the interesting thing. Ready the Son of Man in Daniel

Daniel 7 · chapter mention

Chapter 7, he's riding a cloud. He's the cloud rider.

And there's a theme in the Old Testament that the Son of Man is

the one who rides the clouds. He created the heavens and the

earth. He rides the clouds to receive

his Kingdom. But here in John chapter 12,

John 12 · chapter mention

Jesus rides a donkey, an unbroken young little Burrow

condescending to humanity. The Son of Man, the Son of God,

condescends in humility to humanity, rides a worker's

vehicle in order to go to the cross and die.

Jesus, the Son of Man, condescends in humility for us.

Zechariah continues in verse 10 to tell us what that Kingdom

would be like. Ready.

Let's read it. Zechariah Chapter 9, verse 10.

Zechariah 9:10

God writes through the prophet Zechariah, I will cut off the

chariot from Ephraim and the War Horse from Jerusalem, and the

battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall speak peace to the

nations. His rule shall be from sea to

sea and from the river to the ends of the earth.

Zechariah continues his prophecy by announcing what the Messiah's

Kingdom was going to look like, what it would be like.

It's going to be full of peace and extend far beyond the

borders of Israel. It will be a worldwide Kingdom

with no end. My friends with Zechariah,

prophesied, with Jesus embodied in riding a donkey in his

triumph, is that the future Kingdom will not be established

by force. The future Kingdom will not be

established through power, not through military prowess, not

through persuasion. The future Kingdom will not be

established by force. It's going to going to be

established through humility. God says I'm going to cut off

the chariot. I'm going to cut off the War

Horse, the bow and arrow. I'm going to establish my

Kingdom without doing any of that.

Well, Lord, how are you going to do that?

The future King's going to establish his Kingdom through

peace and how it says he will speak, He will speak peace to

the nations. This is why at the end of

Scripture, when the Lord triumphantly returns, when Jesus

the divine warrior, the king triumphantly returns to

slaughter his enemies, John writes the imagery that the

sword that he bears, guess where it's at?

It's not on, it's not on his hilt, it's not in his hand, it's

in his mouth. It's in his mouth.

Jesus speaks and he brings peace.

He speaks and people are transformed.

And what exactly has he been speaking about these past three

years? The Gospel.

Me. Repent and believe in me.

Repent and believe in me. Jesus will establish His Kingdom

not through force, but through the transformed lives of those

who believe in Him. This is different than any other

Kingdom, than any other triumph that these people have ever

seen. It's upside down.

So how did the people respond? What's their take away from it?

Well, let's study that. Let's pick up John chapter 12,

John 12:16

verse 16. His disciples did not understand

these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they

remember that these things had been written about Him and had

been done to Him. The crowd that had been with him

when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the

dead continued to bear witness. The reason why the crowd went to

meet him was that they heard He had done this sign.

So the Pharisees said to one another, You see that you were

gaining nothing. Look, the whole world is going

after him. Jesus ministry is now public,

the triumphal entry. It evokes a response from

everybody present and the reactions of those present.

It ranges from excitement and expectation to confusion to

frustration. Now what I want to do the with

the remainder of our time is put ourselves in the crowd.

If we were there 2000 years ago watching this event happened,

this triumphal entry happen, what would we say about what's

going on? Who do you see Jesus as in the

crowd? Well, let's look at a couple

responses from all those who were present.

The first response, the expectation of the crowd, the

crowd, remember, what they're shouting is hosanna.

Hosanna. We just sang it earlier.

Hosanna in the highest. That's actually a Hebrew term.

And here's all that Hosanna means save, save now, save now.

The Hebrew term hosanna means save now.

Here's the expectation of the crowd as Jesus comes riding into

Jerusalem in a triumph. Jesus, Hosanna, save right now,

here and now. Do it.

Jesus, I just saw you raise the dead.

Lazarus is right there. I saw you.

You have power. You fed 5000 people.

You walked on water. You have power.

You're able to do these magical things.

Nobody can stop you. Hosanna, Lord, save right now.

You raise the dead. Surely you can free Israel.

Here's their expectation. They're thinking in physical

terms. Jesus, free us from Roman

occupation and Roman captivity. Save our land, make us great.

Save our economy. Lower the gas prices.

Lord, overthrow the government. Overthrow the government.

Jesus, What I want you to do right now is take this little

Bordeaux that you're writing. Don't get off.

I need you to ride straight into the heart of the Roman Empire,

right up to Caesar's doorstep. And I need you to overthrow him

right now. Hosanna save right now.

You see, the crowd has misunderstood his vocation.

You understand who he is, his identity, He's the king, but

they've misunderstood what that king would do.

And how do we know these people in the crowd have unmet

expectations? Because this is the very same

crowd who three days later would he be yelling crucify him,

crucify him, crucify him, crucify him?

What was the trigger? Well, he didn't liberate us

right then and there. You think there's got to be

trigger for these people to change so quickly in a matter of

two to three days from Hosanna save right now to kill him.

He's a fake because of unmet expectations.

Who this king would be my friends.

You see, Jesus mission was not just to overcome Rome, but to

overcome the world. To overcome the world And how?

Remember, what did Zechariah say?

How is he going to overcome the world?

Not through force, not through military prowess, not through

domination. How is he going to overcome the

world? Are you ready?

By dying to it and dying for it? The humble king is going to die

in a matter of days. Now us who choose to follow

Jesus, the way of this humble king, my friends, we must die to

the world as well, just like Jesus.

Did you see the triumphal entry is not just salvation for us,

but it's it's an example. A good friend once told me a

mentor that's ministries tend tend to pattern themselves after

their leader. And in the same way a Kingdom,

the people of the kingship tend to pattern themselves after the

king. Jesus is not just fulfilling

prophecy, not just fulfilling scripture.

He's providing an example for us who believe, who follow the way

of Jesus. So here's some questions.

What does it look like to die to the world?

Well, maybe in the context of your relationships.

Here's what it looks like to die to the world.

Let's ask ourselves some questions.

In your relationships, are you the are you the one who always

needs to get the final word in? In your disagreements, are we

the ones who always need to be right?

Are we the first ones to say how could you, but the last ones to

say I'm sorry, do we find ourselves, our postures saying

Lord give them what they deserve more than Lord forgive them.

They don't know what they're doing.

Friends in these relationships, in these moments, envision

Jesus, the humble King, the Son of God, the King of all

creation, humbly writing to Jerusalem to die for these

people that would days later to be shouting and crucify him.

It doesn't deter him, crucify him.

What I want you to see in the triumphal entry, the the angle

we're taking is the humility of King Jesus and how we are to be

humble as well. Our posture toward the world,

toward non believers, toward people who are acting ungodly is

to be. Yeah, that's exactly what I

expect because they don't know any better.

But I want to be humble with them.

I want to call them to Jesus instead of getting angry.

The crowd has unmet expectations about who Jesus is.

Overthrow Rome right now, Jesus says.

My friends, my people, the enemies that you're fighting are

so much darker than you think. It's not just Rome.

There's something going on inside of you that I have to

take care of first. The second group of people

present that day were the disciples.

Confused. The disciples are absolutely

confused at the sight and I'm curious question I asked myself

of this text. I I wonder where the disciples

were standing during all this, watching this unfold.

Were they dispersed throughout the crowd or were they

sheepishly following his little berto?

Were they embarrassed at the sight?

Shoot. I spent three years with this

guy. This is it.

We, we don't know what the disciples were doing in the

text, but we do know how they felt.

They were confused. John says John is one of them.

He's one of the disciples, so he knows he's an authority.

He says, yeah, I mean, me and the other eleven were like, I

don't know what's going on. Imagine them.

They left their lives to follow this guy.

He promised the Kingdom, and this is it.

We know that the confusion was at least bad enough to make one

of them Judas defect to where? Judas, seeing the site, says,

all right, I'm out, I'm out. This isn't what I signed up for.

I thought he would provide us wealth.

I thought he would make our nation great.

I thought he would save us here and now.

This is the catalyst for days later Judas betraying him.

Have you ever felt this way in your Christian life?

This isn't what I signed up for. Sometimes we can be confused and

have unmet expectations by thinking about what Christianity

is that when we come to Jesus, life gets so much easier.

My friends, that's not true. Life in in a way gets harder

because the closer you get to Jesus, the more you see your

sin, the more you want to change it, but life gets harder.

It's totally worth it, but there will be hardship and that's why

Jesus says those who persevere. Blessed are those who are not

offended by me, Matthew 11, who persevere to the end.

You're going to make it, but if you're honest with yourself,

sometimes you share the confusion of the disciples.

Lord, what are you doing? You said I wouldn't get sick.

You said that you provide for me.

You said that I'd get this promotion.

You said that my loved one wouldn't die.

What are you doing? Be honest with yourself.

Your Christian experience can feel like that.

The third party present at the triumphal entry was the

religious, religious leaders. And they are absolutely

frustrated and opposed by what? The site, at the site, they're

enraged. They say, look, see that you

guys are getting nothing, gaining nothing.

They're fighting amongst themselves, saying we need to

stop this guy. Look, the whole world is going

after him. They were enraged.

This is how they felt. This upstart son of a Carpenter

born of adultery. We don't even know where his dad

is from. The poorest region of Galilee,

San Bernardino, Porsto. He's got no formal theological

training. He doesn't even look nice.

There's nothing glamorous about this guy.

He's riding a donkey and being hailed as the king of Israel.

Jesus is not what they had envisioned in a king.

In these past couple of years, you guys as a church have been

studying First and Second Samuel.

Do you remember when Israel asked for a king, King Saul?

What did they want? Somebody head and shoulders

above the rest, long flowing hair, a mane, somebody who would

ride into battle for us. Jesus is not that man looks at

the outward, but God looks at the heart.

These religious leaders wanted somebody different and not this

guy. They're getting afraid because

the anticipation, the excitement swelling, they're afraid that

it's going to get so big, so out of hand that Rome is going to

come kill them all. We got to silence this guy.

Can we be like the religious leaders sometimes missing the

vision of Jesus? I think we can be.

I know I can. The temptation is to supplant

the mission of Jesus with their own expectations or our own

preferences instead of conforming our expectations to

his of who we're called to be. Maybe it looks like this.

I don't like that worship song that they played this morning.

It was a little bit off key. How this song again?

It's too dark in here. Yeah, this.

The spirit was not moving there today.

That guy on stage, he's wearing jeans.

Can you believe they have women on stage?

I can't believe that guy is using the ESV Bible, not the

KJV. Chris doesn't sing like Pastor

Casey. I'm out.

Pastor Casey doesn't teach like Chris.

Go deeper, man. It's a subtle temptation in all

of you, all of us. We can be like the religious

leader sometimes, my friends. Our vision of Jesus must be

shaped by how he envisioned himself.

He saw himself as the one whom Old Testament prophecies pointed

to, the one who would carry God's plan of redemption forward

for all of humanity into a brand new age.

That's what we're celebrating during Passion Week, that the

age of sin and death is over and the age of righteousness in life

has come. And it's going to be through

this humble King Jesus, who's going to a cross to die for

these people who with three days later shout, crucify him.

Let's finish our text, John chapter 12, verse 20.

John 12:20

Now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some

Greeks. So these came to Philip, who was

from Bethsaidah in Galilee and asked him, Sir, we wish to see

Jesus. Philip went and told Andrew.

Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus, and Jesus answered them.

The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.

It's no coincidence that the events of Passion Week took

place during the feast of Passover.

Historically, scholars believe there's millions of people here

at Jerusalem. Jesus fame has now reached

beyond the borders of Israel where some non Jews, some Greeks

are seeking Jesus for the first time, Gentiles have sought to

seek Jesus. This is the very moment.

This moment becomes the crux of God's plan of redemption.

And this is a beautiful thing in the text.

Jesus, his whole life, his whole ministry has been on a divine

timeline. Nothing's wasted, nothing's

accidental. Remember, one of his favorite

phrases is permitted to be so, to fulfill all righteousness.

Fulfill all righteousness. You ever notice how the

Pharisees, the religious leaders, Rome, the centurions,

nobody could ever catch him. He always managed to slip out of

their grasp like a ghost. How theologian John MacArthur

used to say that this is an overlooked miracle.

An overlooked miracle that an entire empire and the religious

leaders couldn't lay a finger on him.

It's just one dude. Just arrest him.

Why can't you grab him? Because it wasn't his time.

You can't. He's been on the divine timeline

his whole life. You remember the wedding at Cana

John Chapter 2 when they ran out of wine.

John 2 · chapter mention

Mary Jesus mother tells the disciples, whatever he says to

you, do it. She complaints to him.

Jesus, Jesus, Oh my gosh, they ran out of wine.

The hospitality table isn't set up.

They ran out of wine. His response to her is mom

woman, my time has not yet come. My time is not yet come.

The hour is not here. This whole time, this whole

ministry, the hour, the time is always a future event until this

very moment when he says, all right, the hour's here, the time

is here and what is the trigger for the hour to be here?

Here's the beauty of the text that Gentiles, non Jews have

come seeking Jesus. That's you and me.

The very fact that his fame has spread outside of Israel and

people are being drawn to him by the Father.

Jesus sees the time and he says all right, it's time.

Now is the time for the Son of Man to be glorified.

The rest of Passion Week is about the inauguration of this

Kingdom and the coronation of the King.

The shepherd, he says, has sheep who are not of this fold.

And they hear my voice and they will come to me.

You who believe in Jesus, how did you come here?

What keeps you here? I have friends, people that I

grew up with that Casey talks about.

When I met Pastor Casey when I was 15, there was a band of us.

There's a bunch of us who Casey knew I'm I am one of a handful

who stayed and it saddens me. It hurts me to hear, to see my

friends walk away. Why do you, the sheep keep

following Jesus the shepherd? Because the sheep hear his voice

and they know him. He called you to himself.

You and I are drawn to him by the Father.

The rest of Passion Week is about the inauguration of this

Kingdom. And as you and I invite the

worship team to come up, here's a meditation for us about

Passion Week. The Kingdom is here.

The Kingdom is here. The triumphal entry sets the

stage for the rest of Passion Week.

It's the announcement that the Kingdom is here and Jesus, the

humble King, is going to establish a Kingdom that will

never end and it will be done through peace.

The Kingdom was not established through power or force.

It's established through death and resurrection.

You see what the triumphal entry reveals is that the enemy is

much darker than you. And I can see the crowd wanted

Jesus to liberate them physically from Roman

occupation. Jesus says you are in captivity,

but a much darker and more sinister captivity than you

think. It's not about people, it's

about your heart. It's about your heart.

Here's how this Scripture displays that captivity.

What you and I are under, what we need to be liberated from.

We need to be liberated from from evil, from sin, from death,

from divine and human evil. Listen to Paul the Apostle in

Colossians chapter 2, verses 13 through 15.

Colossians 2:13–15

Paul writes in you that's us who were dead in your trespasses and

sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh.

God made alive together with Jesus, having forgiven our

trespasses by canceling the record of death that stood

against us with its legal demands.

This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.

He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open

shame by triumphing over them. Paul's choice of words here

triumphing is deliberate. He knows what the triumph is,

and he says what the at the cross.

Here's what happens. Jesus disarms the rulers and

authorities, the powers of darkness that hold you and I

down. You see, there's a problem that

you and I suffer from, and it's the problem of me.

It's the problem of sin, the things that I love to do.

Who is the one instigating that sin?

It's powers of darkness who keeps you in fear, who haunts

you with your failures, who causes you to fear death.

The enemy is not people, it's the powers of darkness.

And Jesus disarms them at the cross because what he does is

take me. Instead.

He lets evil have its way with him at the cross, and die is the

death that we deserve, so that you and I would go free.

The author of Hebrews puts it this way.

Since therefore, the children share in flesh and blood, he

himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death

he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the

devil, and deliver all those through fear who through fear of

death were subject to lifelong slavery.

What's the one thing everybody's afraid of?

It's death. And Satan, the enemy of your

soul, holds you in captivity through fear of death.

Why do we have sayings like Yolo carpe diem?

You only got one life to live, so I'm going to live it with sin

because you're afraid to die. You see, here's the cycle.

Sin produces death. Death holds you in captivity,

and it leads to more and more and more sin because you think I

only got one shot to live, so I'm just going to live it up.

That's the ploy of the enemy. Jesus at the cross disarms the

devil by conquering death. The one thing that you're afraid

of. So our deepest need is the

gospel, and what Passion Week is about is about this Kingdom

being inaugurated. I want you to see this.

The triumphal entry is Jesus's inauguration.

His suffering and crown of thorns is his coronation.

His death on the cross is his exaltation.

It's his throne where he begins to rule.

His victorious resurrection, which we will celebrate next

week, is his glorification. As I finish, some of you need to

hear these words. And I wrote it down for you

because it was on my heart. The character of God, his

nature. Scripture says God is love.

God is love. It's his default disposition,

love. It's in his nature.

Some of you believe the lie from the enemy, that his default

disposition rather is wrath and judgement.

It's not true. There's no biblical evidence for

that. He does judge sin, but he judges

at the cross in Christ because he is love.

His disposition towards you is not wrath and judgement, but

love. Some of you believe the lie that

you think you need to persuade Him to love you with good

behavior. So you've come to church today.

I'm glad you're here, but I want you to hear this, that God's

love, His nature has demonstrated towards you and

that He willingly is going to ride a donkey straight to the

cross for you. Jesus, the humble King, will

willingly endure the cross for us.

Make no mistake, he says, nobody takes my life, nobody murders

me. I lay my life down of my own

accord and for my sheep, that I may take it up again.

Just as I raise Lazarus, I'm going to raise up myself.

Jesus dies for your fears. He dies for your failures.

He dies for your addictions, the things that you've tried and

tried and tried to break but you cannot.

He nails it to the cross. Colossians says Passion Week

displays his love for us. This is the gospel.

God created you for a loving relationship with him.

He is holy, but you and I have sinned against them.

And if you're willing to admit and be honest with yourself, we

can be hypocritical like those religious leaders.

We've failed. Nobody's perfect.

The wages of sin, the wages of our failures is death.

There's a curse that we all bear.

The reason why, all of you of me, the reason why we are going

to die is because of the curse of death.

And it's unavoidable. But God in his disposition

towards you in his love, sends Jesus through a triumphal entry

to triumph over the powers of darkness, to triumph over your

sin and death, taking your sin upon his back and being nailed

to a cross on your behalf, taking in the curse of death for

you so that you don't have to. This is why he can tell Martha,

your son, your, your brother Lazarus, he will live again.

For those who believe in Me, though they may die, yet they

will live, for I am the resurrection and the life.

This is the gospel. Jesus lives, dies, rises for us

because we cannot, and he calls for us to believe.

Our vision of Jesus is the humble King produces in us, the

people of the Kingdom, the humility and kindness that we

need toward other people. And it is the kindness of God

that leads people to repentance. I'll finish with this verse

which encapsulates everything we've talked about here today.

Paul the apostle Philippians chapter 2, verses 5 through 9.

Philippians 2:5–9

This is a poem about Jesus. Have this mind among yourselves,

which is also yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the

form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be

grasped. But he emptied himself by taking

the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men and

being found in human form. He humbled himself by becoming

obedient to the point of death, even the death on the cross.

He didn't have to die. He went willingly for you and

for me. And we celebrate that this

Passion Week, the life, death, and next week the resurrection

of the King Jesus. We hope you enjoyed this message

and we'd love for you to join us in person every Sunday at 10:30

AM. For more information and

updates, visit wearebridgetown.com.

Thanks for tuning in and we'll see you next week.