Palm Sunday – When Jesus Shows Up

This podcast is presented to you by Pastor Jason Burns and Access Church in Lakeland, Florida.

For more information, visit Access.tv.

My name is James.

My wife and I, we've been married over 11 years.

I'm the husband to one, father of two.

Make sure you heard that right.

I'm the husband to one, father to two.

We have two boys, Braxton and Grayson.

Braxton's eight years old.

Praise God.

Braxton's eight years old, and Grayson is five.

I'm convinced.

I gotta tell you this.

I've been thinking about it all day long.

Because today's fun in the sun.

Is that what it's called?

Is it the airplane, sun fun, whatever?

I didn't know it existed, and I was so excited that Pastor Jason invited me to access.

And then I realized if he was nervous at all about what I would say today, he would just bring me on a weekend where he could blame anything I said on the planes.

That's what it is, right?

Um, but he mentioned uh that we have had the opportunity to build a relationship and a friendship.

Just over about a year ago when we visited Lakeland for the first time, and upon that first visit, everybody said you gotta go to Access.

And so we came to Access.

We sat back about six or seven rows over there on my left and your right.

If you're sitting in that row and you felt the presence of God today, you're welcome.

Um, but we sat right over there and I heard a fantastic message.

Your pastor's an incredible preacher, and my eight-year-old Braxton loved one of the illustrations.

One of the illustrations was about Pastor Jason getting this pizza and he got it home, and it either had like a toenail or a tooth or something in it.

And ever since then, Braxton is going, Dad, we gotta go see the pizza preacher.

We gotta go see the pizza preacher.

And so if today you showed up to hear the pizza preacher and you're a little disappointed, well, so was Braxton, but Pastor Jason will be back next week, all right?

I really am thankful for him because it's 12 o'clock, I have a little bit more time.

I just want to say uh what an honor it is to know him.

Aside from the stage, aside from just being a pastor, he's been a friend to my family before we ever arrived in Lakeland.

He welcomed us here.

Uh, there's been times when my family was sick, and when you're a pastor, you don't always have people that help pastor your family.

Because people just think, oh, somebody else has got it.

There's been moments where my kids were sick and he would show up.

My kids were sick and he would send gifts.

And so I'm so thankful for a pastor, especially in today's culture, who loves people the way that Jesus does, lives like Jesus does, and leads like Jesus does.

If you're thankful that's your pastor, would you honor Pastor Jason this morning?

All right.

I'm gonna dive right in.

Listen, he mentioned it's the beginning of Easter.

Easter has already started.

Everybody say it starts now.

Easter starts right now.

So the title of today's message is simply this What happens when Jesus Shows Up?

What happens when Jesus shows up?

Now, it's important for us to recognize that my perception of someone will impact my reception of that person.

My perception impacts the reception.

I'll prove it to you.

Growing up, I was the perfect child, never did anything wrong, as you can imagine.

Uh but every once in a while, if I got out of line, my mom would tell me, she said, You just wait till your dad.

Oh, wait till your dad gets home, boy.

I mean, when she told me that, I decided it was a game of hide and seek.

I would just run and hide, right?

Until dad decided to seek when he got home.

I was so nervous that my dad, oh my goodness, what's gonna happen?

I'm gonna get in trouble.

And then that same father, though, when he would go on a trip, he always had an extra suitcase when he came home from the trip.

I couldn't wait.

I would wait at the door, I'd be looking in the driveway.

My dad would come home, he'd bring that suitcase inside.

I'd say, Dad, I'm glad you're here.

And then I would dive into the suitcase.

Why?

Because dad always brought some gifts when he traveled.

Same father, but I had two different receptions because of my different perceptions.

I start off today by saying that because if we're gonna talk about what happens when Jesus shows up, we have to recognize that you and I, whether you're new to church and new to faith or you've been around church for a long time, our perception of Jesus will determine how we receive him.

You know, if I if I'm looking at Jesus as this person who's showing up to judge me and shame me, then I'll be afraid.

Shame will cause me to reframe pain and experience.

But if I'm able to look at Jesus as the one who made me to love me, not made me to judge me, then I'll be willing to receive him.

Well, James, why do we talk about this on Palm Sunday?

Of all Sundays, why do we want to talk about what happens when Jesus shows up?

Because Palm Sunday is all about Jesus showing up.

He shows up, and in the Gospels, we got Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, in John's Gospel in chapter 12, we see that Jesus is showing up to the city of Jerusalem.

I've actually had the opportunity to visit this place, and on visiting Jerusalem, it's it's important to recognize geographically that Jesus was coming from a city where he would have had to come down an elevated path into the city.

And so on this day when Jesus is entering Jerusalem, all of Jerusalem can see Jesus.

And Jesus can see all of Jerusalem.

I wonder what it would be like for you and I to move past just text and lean into the tension of time and ask ourselves, how do we receive King Jesus?

So I want to go to John chapter 12, and I'm gonna start in verse 12, and I want us to read these passages together.

John 12 · chapter mention

This is what it says in John chapter 12 and verse 12.

John 12 · chapter mention

It says, the next day, the great crowd that had come for the festival.

Now, what's taking place here is there's a Passover season.

Everyone on the Jewish people are preparing for something called Passover.

This is a holiday or a festival of the many festivals that they derive from the Old Testament, from the book of Deuteronomy.

We see that they started this memorable moment, this festival, this party of Passover, to remind themselves that God was the God of freedom and liberation.

That God was the God of freedom and liberation.

As the Jewish people had been under bondage and in slavery by the Egyptian people, they started this Passover remembrance of the God who would bring them out.

But now, in the second half of scripture, they're celebrating this same Passover, but they're under Roman occupation and Roman oppression.

It's important for us to recognize that some of us today may feel like a great crowd that's come for a festival that maybe today you showed up on a Sunday because this is just the thing you do.

It's part of your schedule, it's part of your routine.

And maybe if you did some inventory of your life, you don't feel free, you don't feel liberated because of past experience, because of pain, because of situations and circumstances in your life.

But Jesus still shows up even in predicaments that we wouldn't have ever figured he would show up at.

So Jesus shows up, they're getting ready to celebrate, but they heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem.

I mentioned that he was coming from another city.

He's coming from the city called Bethany.

He was there because a friend of his has now passed away.

His name was Lazarus, and Jesus shows up to that moment.

It says this in the next verse.

Says they took palm branches.

Everybody say palm branches.

Okay, you see it?

This is the context clue.

Even if you're new to church, I'm gonna give you all the insight.

You ready?

Palm branches, palm sundae.

This is how we get palm sundae.

This is also known, if you grew up in church, as the triumphant entry.

Doesn't that just sound nice?

I just I get a hey right there.

All right.

So they took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting, Hosanna! Now, I grew up in a church in rural Alabama, a tiny little town of less than 5,000, in a small church.

We had orange carpet and something called pews, which meant pew.

It was crazy, right?

And so we did some stuff that, well, if I'm just being honest, was weird, right?

I need you to know, if you're new to church, that most people who are weird Christians, they were weird before they were Christians, right?

Christianity didn't make them weird.

They were just weird already, all right?

If you're a weird Christian, don't blame that on Jesus.

That's on you, okay?

But they they they had this thing on Palm Sunday where every once in a while what they would do is in rural Alabama where there's no palm trees, they would import palm branches.

We I'm talking about we didn't have anything but like corn and tobacco and cotton and wheat.

Like it was a farming community, but they would bring in palm branches and you would give a bunch of country folk who never even seen palm trees, these palm branches, and you start playing some songs, they start waving them.

They start waving these palm branches.

I remember Sister Linda.

Sister Linda would wave that palm branch right into my face.

Sister Linda would worship a little less.

Amen.

There's something about that though.

We would remember, like all these palm branches.

And so maybe you've seen that.

Maybe you've seen the religious custom, but you didn't know what it was rooted in.

These people, in the very first entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, for this moment, these palm branches are actually a symbol of victory.

They're coming out and they're saying, We're gonna be victorious.

Victorious over what?

Oh, they were ready for a king.

They come out and they say, Hosanna, save us, deliver us, is the translation.

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

Blessed is the king of Israel.

So this group of people come out with palm branches, a symbol of victory.

They're shouting, save us, and they're declaring there's a new king.

For you and I, we can read that in 2022, and we can see this and go, oh, this was Jesus, and it was the salvation of the world.

That's not what these people mean.

These people are believing that he's coming as a new king to throw off the Roman oppression, to throw off the Roman government, and to establish a new kingdom, the kingdom that they wanted.

But our king comes to establish his own kingdom.

He didn't come to sit in a castle, he came to reign on the hearts of men and women.

He didn't come to throw off Roman oppression, he came up to throw off the Satan's oppression, sin and shame and guilt and pain.

And so that's the kind of king that comes in.

It says this Jesus found a young donkey.

Now this is important.

He finds a young donkey and set on it as it is written.

Where is it written?

In Zechariah chapter 9 and verse 9.

Zechariah 9 · chapter mention

So Jesus is fulfilling something from the Old Testament.

It's important because how they're perceiving him.

Remember, my perception will impact my reception.

And so they go, oh, here he comes.

Just like Zechariah had written, Do not be afraid, daughter Zion.

See your king is coming seated on a donkey's colt.

Again and again, their perception is, oh, we're finally gonna get what we've always wanted.

We're finally gonna get a savior, we're finally gonna get a king.

But Jesus is doing something deeper than they see on the surface.

It says in the next verse that at first his disciples did not understand all this.

Only after Jesus was glorified did they realize that these things have been written about him and that these things have been done to him.

It says this.

Now the crowd that was with him when he called Lazarus from the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to spread the word.

This is so important.

Jesus is in Bethany, he's at the tomb of a man named Lazarus who's been dead for four days, and Jesus says, Come up out of that grave.

And now the crowd that was with him, they continue to follow.

Goes on, says many people, because they had heard that he had performed this sign, this sign being what?

That he had raised someone to life.

Now, this particular resurrection is so key because he didn't just raise someone from the dead.

Jesus has actually done that once before with a little girl.

But he said to the little girl, You're only asleep, now rise up.

But this man, Lazarus, has been dead for four days, four meaning he's completely dead, not just dead, he's dead, dead.

And Jesus says, I don't care how hopeless the situation, I can still raise them to new life.

And so people see this sign and they go, Oh my goodness, this is what the prophets had told us about.

So they see this sign, they went out to meet him.

So the Pharisees, the Pharisees, and growing up in church, my my background, I grew up in, we would go to something called Sunday school, right?

Which never even sounded fun as a kid, if I'm being honest, right?

Sunday school.

I've been in school Monday through Friday.

Don't take me on Sunday too, right?

So the setup was wrong.

Number two, you had to show up to church early.

And back then, church started at like 10:30 and didn't get out till two.

And then you had to come back at five because we had another prayer service, and then we would do all night prayers, anyways.

Ha! Sunday morning, Sunday school, we would we would learn these things and they would try to help us understand Pharisees.

So they would teach us these little terms.

They go, Pharisees, they're not fair.

You see?

Like, oh, got it.

Or they would say, like, Sadducees, they're so sad.

Okay, yeah, you're welcome, right?

And so sometimes I have a definition for this definitive marker for people, but I don't understand what it actually was.

These people were actually people who devoted their life to keeping the law of God.

There are hundreds of laws every day, day and night.

They really believed if they got the system right, if they did all the right things, they would have a right relationship with God.

So their perception is we've been doing all the right things.

Now here comes this man who's doing things that we think aren't right, and we can't receive him because he doesn't meet our prerequisites.

It says, so they said to one another, what do they say to one another?

This is so key.

See, this is getting us nowhere.

Look how the whole world has gone after him.

I love that their indictment is actually excitement for me.

I say the whole world's going after Jesus.

Man, if there was something that I wish I could say in 2022, is hey, the economy's crazy, politics are crazy, our world is crazy and upheaval, but the whole world has gone after Jesus.

If there's something that we need to pull from the New Testament today, it's that our only hope has always been and will always be Jesus, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.

Wait, so you say, James, but what happens when Jesus shows up?

What I want to do is I want to go back and I want to trace the trail of Jesus coming into Jerusalem.

I want us to put ourselves in the shoes of those early people who were receiving a king.

Had all different perceptions, all different receptions, and ask ourselves today, where do I find myself receiving Jesus?

And remember, you could be coming to church for the first time or been around church for a long time.

But I think it's important for you and I today to dive in, especially in this Easter season, before we celebrate the resurrection, to really do the work of asking, what's my reception of this king?

I want to give you four groups of people I think we find that are reacting when Jesus shows up.

The very first is this the excited celebrated.

The excited celebrated.

Now, I need you to know this.

I am just a person who gets excited about certain things, right?

Now, I'm actually an introvert.

I'm not an extrovert.

Many of you would go, no, you're on stage, you're an extrovert.

I'm what I call an excited practicing extrovert, okay?

Sorry, introvert that practices as an extrovert.

How many of you in the room, you're just naturally an extrovert?

Where are you at?

Naturally extroverts, right?

You couldn't wait to participate.

You were you wanted to go woo, right?

Now, for those of you in the room that are more like me, you're an introvert, just nod at me.

I won't ask you to raise your hand.

There we go.

So I'm naturally an introvert, but I get excited about stuff sometimes that makes me act like an extrovert.

One of the things I get really excited about is my son Braxton when he plays sports.

Okay?

Now, Braxton's been playing basketball for about three or four years.

And a couple years ago, Braxton was in this basketball league and they didn't keep score, which I thought was stupid.

Um so I just decided that God had put me there in the stands as a parent to not only keep score on my phone, but announce to the rest of the people that were there what the score was, give them the stat line, good calls, bad calls.

I just let them know everything, right?

And then um, well, there was this one day.

Uh there was this game that had happened, and um, my excitement, uh, my passion, if you will, had taken over me.

And I found myself standing in the stands, and I began to yell out about the score.

I began to yell out about the calls, and about that time I felt a tug on my hoodie I was wearing.

Now, as a child, when you're in trouble, they full name you.

So for me, I would hear, James Braxton Powell, you better get in here, right?

But when you get married, sometimes your spouse can just call you by your profession to remind you of your present problem, right?

So all of a sudden I feel a tug on my hoodie, and my wife, who's so loving and caring, goes, Um, Pastor James, you need to sit down.

I said, I ain't a pastor right now, I'm a parent.

So, yeah, I've never been kicked out of a game before.

Um, I was carried out that day.

It was very interesting, but I get excited.

I get excited, these people are excited, but it's important to recognize that excitement comes from emotion.

Worship is rooted in devotion.

They often look alike, but they're rooted in different systems.

It's important for us, especially in church context and culture, for those of us who claim to follow Jesus, to recognize that it's not just something I'm an emotional about because emotions and feelings come and go.

Oh, they're flawed.

My feelings are flawed, they're real, but sometimes they're really wrong.

And if I'm not careful, I'll end up following my feelings instead of being rooted in my faith.

And so I can come into a context like this, and on good weekends I'm like, this is the day.

Oh, that's a really old song, right?

I can get really excited, I can sing the song and I can clap, but if it's a bad day, I'm just like, mmm, worship's not that good today.

Which is always ironic, right?

As if we think that they were worshiping for us.

It's like, oh, you don't actually get determined if worship is good or bad.

The one we're worshiping does, and his name's Jesus.

Sorry, I shouldn't have said that.

I apologize.

But it's true, take it to heart.

Okay.

But I think it's important for us to recognize the difference in those two things, right?

Because these people, it says they took palm branches and they went out to meet him, and they're shouting, Hosanna, that looks like worship, but it acts like emotion.

James, how?

Because these same people who say, Hosanna, deliver us, here comes the king of Israel, would be some of the same people who yell out, crucify him.

Crucify.

Why?

Because they didn't get from Jesus what they wanted.

Remember what they wanted?

They wanted him to overthrow the Roman Empire.

He's like, No, no, no, you don't understand.

I came to do a much bigger work.

I came to overthrow principalities and powers that you don't even know about.

I'm I come to overrule that thing.

For you and I, I wonder how many times, if we're not careful, we're delusional about our expectations of God as if thinking that somehow makes him worthy of my praise.

If he answers my prayers or he doesn't, he's God all by himself.

He's still good, he's still worthy.

If the only thing he ever did was send me Jesus, he's worthy of my praise on the good days and the bad days, on the ups and the downs.

But I can't help I struggle with the opportunity of how do I help you see and understand palm branches.

They they've got this special sign.

They they think, oh, if I wave the palm branch, if we yell he's a king, somehow this will help us win.

It's as if they're fanatics, right?

It's as if they're going, like, we can somehow do this.

It's like you want to help them understand, like, at best, you you're still in Roman oppression.

You you don't get what's going on.

You're missing the mark.

I think of like fans sometimes, fans that just get so fanatic, they get so excited, they have like a special symbol, they wear like a special chain, and they root for a team that's subpar at best.

And you want to help them.

You want to go, like, hey, you give up on your team.

Give up, like, if I hadn't just had a picture, something that I could show you to help you understand what that looks like.

You want them to be free from that oppression.

You want to say, come out from among them.

Like, you don't have to live in this shame anymore.

I gotta tell you, as much fun as this is, I told Pastor Jason, he looks so tough in this pick, though.

He's like Mr.

T, just ready to go.

Okay, we can take that down.

Here's what here's what I think of.

I love that, I love that who I know Pastor Jason to be is somebody who's excited about sports.

Oh, he's somebody who loves his team, but can I tell you I love that I know him to love Jesus so much more?

On good days and bad, he shows up.

When he feels like he doesn't, he shows up to the house of God.

See, it's not about being a fair weather fan.

These early people who are excited and they're celebrating, they're in and out.

It's over with for them.

What would it look like for us to be dedicated?

Say, hey, I'm gonna show up, I'm gonna continue to give and serve.

I'm gonna allow God to use my talents and my resources.

Why?

Because I believe in what he's doing, irregardless of what I'm going through today.

I tell you, I've made a decision in my life on the bad days are for sure the days I'm showing up.

You say, why?

Because that's the day I need to be reminded he still has no rival, he still has no equal.

The enemy lies to us sometimes in worship.

We think because we're not excited, because we're not emotional about it, that somehow it's fake.

Right?

You you say, Oh, I don't I don't feel like he's not a no rival or no equal today.

I don't feel like he has that, so I don't want to raise my hand, I don't want to clap.

That feels fake.

No, that's called faith.

That's called faith that in spite of my present circumstances, he's still God, he's still good.

He was faithful, he is faithful, he will forever be faithful.

So, in in my heart, what I do is I've just said I'm going to be an obedient worshiper.

I'm gonna come with my praise set in my heart, regardless of what I'm going through.

I don't want to be just the celebrating ones that were excited.

All right, the second group of people is very interesting because I call them the curious, the curious, the con.

Contemplate it.

The curious that contemplated.

When we approach this season of the year, especially Easter, it's important for us to recognize that there are questions not only in the room but outside the room, people that you'll invite that are battling and kicking the tires of faith, trying to figure out what is this Jesus thing all about.

I think we find a lot of hope in John chapter 12.

John 12 · chapter mention

It says this at first his disciples did not understand all of this only after.

Now, there's a couple words here I did not bold for you that I think are very pivotal in this passage.

At first, everybody say at first?

At first, the disciples did not understand.

Now that's key.

If we only stay there, then they didn't understand, and that's really sad for you and I.

That the people who were closest to Jesus, who have followed Jesus, seen the signs, wonders, and miracles, who had ate with Jesus, lived their life with Jesus, they didn't understand it.

I guess we're not gonna understand it either.

All right, let's go home.

Amen.

No, because it says only it says after his disciples, they didn't know it, but only after Jesus was glorified did they realize that these things have been done and written about him and to him.

That means there's hope that at first doesn't prevent and only after.

That there's actually attention in the text that you and I can rely on.

What did they do?

Over and over again, we see disciples, Jesus would teach in parables.

And in these parables, he would give them a truth that was so deep it needed a metaphor.

Things like the lost sheep or the lost coin or the faithful father, or maybe known as the prodigal son.

These stories that Jesus would share to demonstrate the love and faithfulness of God, they wouldn't understand it.

So where did they go with their questions?

They took their questions to the Christ.

Even upon his resurrection, we see them asking questions.

Where are the scars in your hands?

Where are the piercings in your feet?

Why?

Because they knew if I'm gonna be curious, I gotta take my questions to the right place so it can lead to confidence.

Oh, you and I, we've got questions.

I need you to know that's that's not a bad thing, that it's okay.

Maybe it seems a little taboo to you that I would say is the person on the stage with the microphone.

I got questions.

You know, I have a running document on my computer of questions that I have for God.

No, that's not okay.

You need to have faith.

Oh, my faith is demonstrated by putting my doubt on my doubts and my belief in my beliefs.

I still got questions, but I've I've found the right place to take them to.

See, I've learned I can't get my theology from TikTok, I can't get my inspiration from Instagram.

I've got to go.

Where did they take their questions?

They took them to the Christ.

If I'll take my curiosity to the Christ, I'll walk away with confidence.

What are you building your life on though?

What is it that you take your questions to?

I gotta tell you, the more I search the scriptures, the more answers I find.

The more I search the scriptures, the more understanding I have of the love and the mercy and the grace of God.

See, the disciples who didn't understand at first, who understood after he glorified, are some of the very ones who penned Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John for you and I.

That we have the opportunity to build our foundation on the shoulders of those who went before us.

That we're able to go, okay, what is it, God, that you did and displayed and demonstrated to these people that I need to understand?

The curious, they contemplated.

I dare you today, whether you're on site or online, new to faith or been around church a long time, to take your questions to Jesus.

The third group I see here is this it says the shook up.

They spread hope.

The shook up spread hope.

I I remember when it was like a trend on Instagram and stuff that where you would take a mentos and you would throw it into a Coca-Cola and you'd try to get the cap on, and what would happen?

It'd be everywhere, right?

Which is like a new way of doing something that we used to do.

When I when I was younger, we would take a Coke bottle and we would tighten it real tight and then we would shake up the Coke bottle, and then we would throw it on the ground, and it would hit the top, and what would happen?

Boom, it'd take off like a rocket, right?

There's something about when it was shook up that what was shaken on the inside couldn't stay on the inside.

It had to get out.

Oh, it had to get out.

We're so tempted to keep the good work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, in our church community, to keep it inside the four walls or in the corridors of our heart.

And God's whole purpose has been to get it out.

What do we like to spread the word?

It says this says that these people that were with Jesus when he called Lazarus from the tomb and raised him from the dead, they continued to spread the word.

They saw something, they saw something that shifted in their soul.

Something so pivotal, something so powerful, they said, I can't not tell anybody what I've seen.

I want to encourage you today.

What you're seeing in this church is uncommon.

Please don't allow what God's done and demonstrated his power and his work in this church to become familiar.

The fact that you're a radically generous church, do you know we actually see that in the church?

What this whole thing started in the book of Acts, they were radically generous.

Radically generous.

Oh, don't let it become common to you that yesterday in nine different locations, you, as the body of Christ, went out into the highways and hedges and you served the community.

Like that's just what we do, but that's just who Jesus is.

I don't want us to miss it.

That the reason we continue to get the word out, the reason that we have to share with people that Easter's on the way, the reason we have to make a date with people to sit with us next weekend is because God did something in my life that was so radical, so powerful, so new, I gotta tell somebody else about it.

Listen, I know this to be true.

I know this to be true in my life.

Listen, I grew up in a rural town.

At the age of 17, I walked out of church, I began to abuse substances, ended up finding myself living in the back of a Ford Explorer.

I was messed up.

I was least likely to ever be the guy to tell you about Jesus.

But one day Jesus met me in the midst of my own tomb.

And he didn't leave me there.

He went up, everybody else saw all hope was lost, that it's four days and it's done.

Jesus showed up and he said, You gotta come up out of that grave.

I need you to know that what God has done in your life cannot stay with you.

It can be personal, but it needs to be shared so it can be powerful.

You gotta get around some people this week that need the hope of heaven.

Have you been shaken up with the hope of Jesus, the message of the good news?

These people couldn't stop talking about it.

They talked about it so much it cost some of them their lives.

They gave it all because they realized they had received it all in the person of Jesus.

Shook up spread hope.

The fourth group of people that we see.

The prideful, they plotted.

The prideful plotted.

So James, that's not the way sermons work.

We we end on the up, and it's really happy, and this is good.

This is this is not how you end a message.

I just got to teach you from the text for a moment.

It says this.

So the Pharisees said to one another, See, this is getting us nowhere.

Look how the whole world has gone after him.

This is at the end in chapter 12.

Remember this.

This is their response to Jesus showing up.

But can I go back to when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead?

This is in John chapter 11.

John 11 · chapter mention

This is what it says.

If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our temple and our nation.

Do you see what the Pharisees are protecting?

The Pharisees are worried about protecting their own system, their way of connecting with God, their rulership.

Hey, listen, we yeah, we want Jesus, that's fine.

Listen, we don't see the Pharisees opposing baby Jesus.

None of the Pharisees showed up at Christmas time, which wasn't Christmas time, I understand.

They don't show up and go, oh, we don't like baby Jesus.

They don't show up when he's in the temple courts.

As a teen teaching from the text, they celebrated him.

They were in awe of his wisdom.

Oh, they didn't even oppose him when he was doing miracles, as long as he didn't do it on their holy day.

But the minute he began to mess with their religious system, with their schedule, with their preferences, they begin to oppose it.

Man.

See, I don't like that.

Because that means I'm closer to the Pharisees than I want to admit.

I like Jesus in 70 Minutes on a Sunday at the service that I want to go to.

Oh, I like it when we sing the songs about Jesus that I want to sing.

I I liked it a lot better when the church was smaller because I knew everybody.

I liked it a lot better when we only had two services because I got to see Billy and Joey.

And I liked it when I could sit in the seat that I always want to sit in.

I liked it when I got my special parking spot.

What would it look like for you and I to go, look, these are all my preferences, but in comparison to God's purposes, I'll give up my preferences every day of the week.

Oh, I'm not just talking about you, I'm talking about me.

When it says, Come to me, all you who are weary, and I will give you rest.

When's the last time you said my own way is just making me weary?

I'm gonna come to Jesus and I'm gonna lean in on his way so that I can experience true rest.

It may mean next week that you gotta go to that eight o'clock.

Oh no, I do not feel the spirit on that one, brother.

Why?

It upsets my schedule.

You don't understand.

We got we got Easter lunch at Nana's house at 1:30.

But I'm asking you, when you really look at time, when you really understand what this thing is that we're all about, the fact that you've been given the hope of heaven, isn't it worth upsetting your schedule for a weekend?

Oh, what would it look like for you this week to not just invite somebody to go to access, invite somebody to sit with you?

So not always just sit with me.

Well, they can only go to the 1030.

Looks like you're going to the 8, the 1030, and the 12 next week.

That's three times.

Is it worth it?

Genuinely, is it worth it?

Is the gospel worth it?

Is the life-changing experience worth it?

I know it's an inconvenience, but when compared to his goodness and his graciousness, okay.

Well, James, what do we do with this?

The beauty of this is Jesus.

What happens when Jesus shows up?

Jesus shows up to a whole different group of people, four different groups of people, four different backgrounds, four different perceptions, four different receptions.

But Jesus never changes.

Same Jesus to everybody.

Yo, hold on.

What does that mean?

That means if today you've been celebrating and it's been more about your emotions than devotion, Jesus still shows up.

If you've been curious and had doubts, Jesus still shows up.

You've been shook up and spreading the hope, Jesus still shows up.

You've been the prideful, plotting your own will in your own way, Jesus still shows up.

Well, James, what was his response to all those people?

Eventually he would go to a cross, he stretched his arms out wide, and we give him the opportunity to speak to the Father on their behalf.

And he said, Father, forgive them for they don't even know what they're doing.

What would it like for you and I today to receive the grace and the mercy of God to say, James, I find myself at some point being all four of these different people.

But today I want Jesus to restore and redeem some things in my life so that I can lead with hope, so that I can be shook up and spread the word this week.

I believe that if today we make a decision, that decision will make us.

If we make a decision for eternity, that I believe that you and I can see next week the miraculous, the beyond our control, beyond marketing, beyond invitation, the miracle that God would compel all people towards Him.

You go, James, why is that so important?

Because Lakeland needs a city on a hill.

Lakeland's hurting.

There are people out there who feel hopeless.

Their marriages are broken apart, they're struggling with addiction, and they're looking for a safe place to find and follow Jesus.

They simply need you to invite them.

So today, I want to pray for both groups of people.

I want to pray for some people who are saying yes to Jesus for the first time or first time in a long time.

I want to pray for those who today say, James, I want to invite somebody.

I've just been so nervous.

I need the Holy Spirit to give me courage this week.

I'm gonna ask you all over this room, from left to right, front to back, on site and online, to bow your head and close your eyes just for a moment.

I'm gonna give you a moment of privacy so that this can be personal and powerful in your life.

You're here today, and you say, James, that's me.

I'm that first group of people.

I want to follow Jesus.

I've been nervous, I've got questions and doubts, I don't get it all.

But today I recognize that he loves me, he has plans for me, that he was died and he's raised a new life for me.

And today, James, I want to say yes to Jesus.

If that's you in the counter through, I'm gonna ask you is to lift your hand up.

I'm not gonna call you up or stand you up.

I just want to pray a prayer for you.

You ready?

One, two, three.

If that's you, just slip your hand up.

Yeah, I see you.

Come on, anybody else yep?

In just a moment, I'm gonna pray for you.

The second group of people.

You're in this room and you say, James, I'm following Jesus.

I'm just so nervous.

I don't even know how to start the conversation.

I need God's power this week to help me.

I want to share my faith, I want to share the good news.

Would you pray that God's spirit would use me this week?

If that's you on the counter three, I'm gonna ask you to slip your hand up and you can put it right back down.

One, two, three.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Father God, thank you.

Thank you for sending us Jesus amidst all of our own sin and shortcomings.

While we were still in our mess, he died for us.

Today, for my friends who are choosing to follow your son for the first time, or maybe they're recourse correcting back to your will and way.

I pray, God, they would turn their back on their old life, their own decisions, their own choices.

They would trust you.

I pray they would never be the same.

Because of your son Jesus, who paid all of the penalty, so that we could be made right with you.

For my friends who want to share their faith this week, they're nervous, they're looking for opportunity.

I pray that your Holy Spirit would prompt them.

They would have their eyes open to see opportunities.

You would give them the words to say, You would give them the confidence and the courage to seize the moment so that together we can make sure, God, that we share the hope that you've deposited in our hearts with the city around us.

And God, I pray a special blessing on this church.

I pray, God, you would continue to use it.

You would continue to use it to be a beacon of hope, a city on a hill.

People would rush in and they would find hope here.

We thank you for it.

In the name above every name, in the name of our hope and liberating king.

In Jesus' name, everybody said, Amen.