Palm Sunday 2025

Palm Sunday - Ushering In A Kingdom Unknown

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

We're doing well? Yeah? Good, good. I see a lot of smiling faces today, which is always good, helpful for me. We just wrapped up our series called "The Ministry of Jesus" and looked at different aspects of His ministry in a three-year span, all to gain a deeper understanding of who Jesus was, what He did, so that when we come to the cross, when we come to Easter, our praise could be all the deeper, all the louder, having this deeper understanding of Christ's ministry. This week is Holy Week, Passion Week, as you know, I'm sure. This is the final week of Jesus' life before the cross, and it's a week packed with a lot of things. It's packed with important conversations, intense moments between Him and the opposition, the Pharisees, the religious leaders. He has in this week some final preparations to be made with the disciples. And then there's also a lot of emotions, painful tears that are shed as He readies His heart for what He is about to do. All of this leading up to the perfect Son of God being on the cross, taking on our punishment of sin and death, one that He didn't deserve. But we know that the story doesn't end with the death of Jesus. Obviously, we have Easter where we celebrate His resurrection. But this week, I just want to say, before we get there, it's important to go through this week. This week is a rollercoaster, ups and downs. We start with a good moment, but then we go into some lowest of lows before getting to the highest of highs. This is a week where the King of Kings, Jesus Christ, is treated like a criminal, a public nuisance, a problem that needed to be taken care of. But the beginning of Holy Week starts with this moment where He is, to some small extent, He's actually treated like a king. And as we'll see, it's a significant moment, not for reasons that people thought, but because it signifies our proximity to the cross. We're getting closer and closer to the most important moment in history.

So if you guys will, would you guys open your Bibles with me to Mark 11, Chapter 1. We'll have it on the screen as well. Mark 11, chapter 1 verse 1. It says this, "As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of His disciples saying to them, 'Go to the village ahead of you, and just as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, 'Why are you doing this?' say, 'The Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly.' They went and found a colt outside in the street, tied at a doorway. As they untied it, some people standing there asked, 'What are you doing untying that colt?' They answered as Jesus had told them to, and the people let them go. When they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks over it, He sat on it. Many people spread their cloaks on the road, while others spread branches they had cut in 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!' Jesus entered Jerusalem, went into the temple courts. He looked around at everything, but since it was already late, He went out to Bethany with the twelve.”

Just pray with me one more time. God, as we open up your word, I pray that you would reveal your truth to us. God, that we would better understand this moment, what Jesus went through, and what it meant for this holy week. God, I pray that through your word that we would be encouraged and empowered to give more of who we are to you. So be with us during this time. We pray this in your name. Amen.

This is, of course, famously known as Jesus' triumphal entry. Merciful entries were a practice more done in the ancient world, where celebrating someone of significance, often a ruler or a military leader, they had a procession or a parade recognizing that person's accomplishments and celebrating what they have done. So in the Old Testament, we do have an example between David and Solomon, where King David is pretty much ushering Solomon in as the new king, also riding on a mule. That's a little important. We also have, later on in history, if you think of some of the greats, Alexander the Great, he had a procession into Babylon. Julius Caesar had one returning after a military campaign into Rome. Napoleon into Milan in Italy. More modern day, we think of maybe the royal family. I don't know if you guys follow the royal family, but King Charles had a procession ushering in his new reign as king. My mind, you guys know me, I'm a sports person, and I think of our modern day triumphal entry as probably going to be for a sports team. The tradition is, if that team wins a championship, they go back to that city, and they get on the double-decker bus or some cool sports convertible cars, and they have their trophy, and they bring it with them around the city as everyone's cheering, all the fans are there. We in Sacramento have no idea what that's like, because we have never won anything. Maybe if you come from the Bay Area, you celebrated those, I know it hurts, I'm like, I don't know what that's like, I would love to be there. We'll get it on, if the Sacramento Kings ever win a championship, I think Pastor Chris and I will be downtown celebrating that triumphal entry. Jesus's triumphal entry is probably the most famous in history, though it had a lot less pomp and circumstance than some of these other ones I mentioned. It still though is quite a scene here in the Bible, and it's a beautiful moment that demands a further look, because as we celebrate Jesus's triumphal entry, when we really peel back the layers of this moment, what Jesus went through, we'll find that it's a little more complex than just a hallelujah moment. Not everything is as it looks on the surface.

Instead, when we really look, we'll see that there's a people here with a misguided hope. We begin to see Jesus as that suffering servant king. And then also while everything is kind of going against him, that doesn't stop God from executing his plan, as his kingdom, God's kingdom, is a subversive kingdom. So our passage this morning sets the stage, harkening back to that triumphal entry from Solomon in the Old Testament, which is considered to be this golden era of Israel's history. And so the people are experiencing this, are there, and they're making connections. They're thinking, "Oh, this is from our history, I've seen this before, we know about this, this Jesus is important. This Jesus could be the one." But let's start to peel back the layers. So the people of Israel, the crowds, the religious leaders, and even the disciples, were a people with a misguided hope. As the people are shouting, verses 9 and 10, "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." They are praising Jesus, that's a good thing, they can always praise Jesus, but for reasons that were not completely accurate, or not fully realized. They're praising him, but they don't even realize fully who Jesus is, or what his kingdom will look like. So we get this beautiful triumphal entry, praising Jesus as king, but not of a kingdom that they think of, that they know of. We talked about this in our series, Ministry of Jesus, this analogy from a few weeks ago. They walked into a Home Depot wanting to build a home, and they came out with all the wrong pieces and instead built a doghouse. So if the Old Testament is the Home Depot, it's got everything they need for the people to understand who the Messiah will be, they grabbed all the wrong pieces and they were looking to build the wrong thing, a lesser model, assembling the pieces of scripture, the prophets from the covenants, even past experiences, they came to their own conclusions about who the Messiah would actually be.

Let me ask you this question, do you guys know why on Palm Sunday, the people at this time waved palms in the air? If you were here for the morning huddle, you can't cheat and shout out the answer, because I gave it already. But the people waving palm branches and shouting "Hosanna" because they have this genuine desire for liberation, but they also have this human propensity to control the means of salvation. See 150 years prior to this moment, there's a man named Judas Maccabeus who led the Jewish people to a victory over the Seleucid dynasty, which is the dynasty that was overruling Israel at the time. And after that victory, the crowd celebrated by waving palm branches in the air. And to commemorate that victory, Judas, whose nickname was the hammer, which is a pretty sick nickname, Judas the hammer, he stamped an image of palm branches on all of the Jewish coins to symbolize a victory for the Jewish people over their oppressors. So now we come back to Jesus' time, 150 years, and the Jewish people are again under foreign rule, this time by Rome, and they wave their palms in the air, shouting "Hosanna, save us!" And they're saying something to Jesus. They're in effect saying, "Rescue us, but do it like it's been done before. Do it like we know of that military campaign, of a revolt. Lead us again and deliver us." They had hope in Jesus, but it's a misguided hope, constructed from their limited ideas of what Jesus could be. They were thinking merely just of a better earthly existence, a better here and now. Maybe a king to elevate their status as Israel to be recognized around the world, or maybe a warrior to fight back against Rome, maybe a diplomat to get the nation ahead politically. They were limited in their expectations of Jesus, which led to this misguided hope. As we know, God had so much more for them in store, and for us. God sent his son Jesus to save. He came into the world to give so much more than just another golden era for Israel. He came to undo what sin had done, to defeat sin and death, to give salvation, to invite those who believe into an eternity with God. There would be no greater gift, but the people could not see this in that moment.

Pastor Richard Viotta says this, "On Palm Sunday, the crowds wanted deliverance from the power of Rome, but Jesus was about to deliver the entire world from the power of sin and death." Even the disciples, following Jesus year after year now, they did not fully understand what Jesus was about to do. And he had very open conversations with his plans with them. When we think about this tendency to have a misguided hope from Jesus, we are often guilty of this. We can be. We have a small mind or immediate limited view of what's happening. We don't always see how it's all fitting into the larger picture of God's plan for our lives. We get caught up in wanting the better earthly existence, the better here and now. And we want Jesus, we praise Jesus for what he can do, but sometimes we get our expectations fixed and maybe he won't do it the way that we think he will or should. So if we were to ask, you know, who has perfect perspective over everything, who sees the world with perfect wisdom? It's God. It's only God. It says in Isaiah 55, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declared the Lord, "as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." This is true of those people right there in the triumphal entry, that they're thinking only to this level, but Jesus has plans that are far greater.

So I want to ask us right now, do we have a misguided hope? Maybe at times. Are you expecting one thing of Jesus hindering you from seeing maybe the other things that he's doing in your life? Are you looking at scripture and only looking for things that affirm what you hope for, what you believe, quietly in your hearts demanding God to do something or to be someone that you deemed as the only possible solution? We might need to take a step back and continue to put our hope in Christ, but allow him to work in the way that he deems best, which we may not understand. We may not see as it's happening, because God is often working behind the scenes. That can be hard. It can be hard to be patient and to wait and to trust. I know for me, sometimes I am one who thinks between me and God, I'll have a conversation and say, "God, I figured it out for us. I figured out the plan. If God, if you could just do X, Y, and Z, if you could just follow my plan, you got the power. I came up with the plan." And I say it now and it sounds ridiculous, but I think we can kind of get into that habit of praying, "God, just do this. I figured it out. If you could just do this." We limit God and what he could do. It can be hard. It can be discouraging to go through that and not see how God is working. David writes about this in Psalm 42. It says, "Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God." David has a little pep talk with himself, questioning why he's so down and feeling so anxious. And he reminds himself, he commands himself, "Put your hope in God." So do you have a misguided hope in Christ? And how can you trust God more fully in your life and your situation right now? All right, getting back to our scene here. Jesus is riding that colt. He sees the crowds. He hears their cries and knows that their hope is misguided, but he keeps riding. And what is he riding into? What situation is he entering into?

Well, he's riding into the climax of history here, where he will embody being a suffering servant king. One of my favorite tropes in stories and movies and books is the character that has the slow reveal of their true identity in the story. Specifically someone usually like high regard, nobility, who downplays their identity, keeps it a secret as to why they should be revered and instead chooses like the lowly, humble path. I think of my favorite book, Lord of the Rings. I think of Aragorn, maybe King Arthur in ancient history, or maybe Luke Skywalker for you sci-fi fans of someone who had an identity that wasn't known, but then as the story progresses, you see them enduring some injustice. They should be seen in a certain light, but they're not, until a moment or a couple of moments where their true character is able to shine and you get a cheer for them. You're like, "Yeah, that's right. That's what I'm saying. It's been amazing this whole time." I think we see that here with Jesus a bit. In this moment, there's a bit of everything. We see people who are giving him a royal entry. That's good, as we said, but it's not nearly enough for the God of the universe, for the Messiah who will give them eternal life. It's a little short-lived. As he rides into the praises of the people to a grassroots royal entry, because typically these were given by the city, the city would kind of order, "Hey, here's what's happening." But this one just kind of happened. The people gathered, they started raving the palm branches. He's not riding into the glitz and the glamour of everything, but into a moment where he will suffer in a way that no one has ever suffered, bearing the weight of all sin while being crucified. It says in verse 11, "Jesus entered Jerusalem and went into the temple courts. He looked around at everything, but since it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the 12." Again, usually following these royal entries, this figure, whoever was being celebrated, would be housed and entertained, wined and dined. It was a big thing. It just didn't end with the procession. It was like, "Let's welcome you into our finest house. Let's throw a party." And one scholar writes that Jesus, not doing any of that, and instead departing, suggests that this city and his house, as Malachi had warned in the Old Testament, they're not ready for him. The people, again, are expecting an earthly ruling king, but Jesus is a suffering servant king. He's going to suffer, and every sense of the word will suffer emotionally, spiritually, physically, mentally with what he will endure. And yet he serves. He washes the nasty, stinky feet of the disciples. He teaches with compassion and love. He gives food to the hungry. Heals the broken. He serves by giving of himself. He is a suffering servant king. With all this on his mind, as he rides into the city, Jesus knows. He knows that his own people will turn on him. He knows that his own disciples will betray and deny him. He knows that he's going to be tortured and beaten, mocked and scorned, and that he would have to give his own life. And knowing all of this, feeling the weight of all of this, he rides forward. He enters the city, and he continues that redemptive plan. What a king. What a king. What a leader, someone who would suffer for his own people, who would endure pain and death, who would give his own life for a people who had no knowledge that this is the plan.

Now while that leads us to praise Jesus for all that he did, it should also make us ask something of ourselves. Are we prepared to suffer and serve like Jesus? We are called to be like him. Philippians 2 5 says, "Have the same mindset as Christ." And later in that same chapter, Paul writes, "For it is God who works in you, to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose." You have to have the same mindset as Jesus being ready to suffer and serve for God's kingdom. Because God is working, continuing his redemptive plan through us today, as we live like Christ. First John 2 says, "Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did." Again, ready to suffer and serve. And then Peter connects the dots for us even more clearly. First Peter 2 says, "But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his steps." We are adverse to suffering. It's true, we don't like it. We often build our lives around how to, we build our lives being able to suffer as little as possible. And I'm not saying that we need to seek out suffering, and don't hit me on that. But we should expect and be prepared and know that we will suffer for his kingdom if we are following Jesus. It may mean being betrayed by people, being mocked and scorned, hopefully not torture or beaten. But, I don't want to say this lightly, but if that were the case, would you be ready to do that, to follow Jesus, to follow his example? And we need to serve, not just be served. Jesus the Messiah, God overall, again, served in so many different ways, got dirty with his disciples washing their feet. Are you looking to get your hands dirty to serve those in need for his kingdom? And our reward may not be an earthly one. We're not doing this to say, "Hey, if I do this, again, my here and now, my life on earth is going to be better." It may not. It probably won't. But our reward is in heaven. And the goal, I hope you have this goal, this desire that when you get to heaven with God, he's going to look at you and say, "Well done, my good and faithful servant." And he's going to have those moments in mind where you suffered and you served, and he's going to be thanking you. "Good job. That's exactly what I wanted." So are we prepared to suffer and serve for Jesus and like Jesus, who was our suffering servant king?

Something so different than the Israelites were hoping for, something so different than our world today values and admires, which leads us to this point that God's kingdom is a subversive kingdom. As I was studying this week, I was struck by the way that God continues to move his kingdom forward. Even when on the surface things are so chaotic and misunderstood or even against him, his kingdom is a subversive kingdom. His will and his power, his goals keep happening underneath the surface. If you think of it like a river and on the surface and the waters are flowing downstream are chaos, misunderstanding, confusion, opposition. Yet underneath all of that, God's will keeps moving upstream. Doesn't matter. We may not see it. We may not see how he's doing it, but his will is going to happen. He's able to do amazing things all underneath the surface. As the misguided hope of the people is desiring Jesus take an earthly throne, God is still at work to establish his heavenly throne. As the religious leaders are plotting against Jesus, getting everyone with influence and power to join force and to take Jesus down, God is still at work, still moving upstream. And even while Jesus will face his death and his time on earth will come to an end, God is still at work. On the surface, things may look confusing, chaotic, but underneath it all, God is still at work. God's kingdom is a subversive kingdom. This is a theme that goes all the way back to the Old Testament. Quick story in the Old Testament. We think of Joseph in Genesis and he's the one that was sold into slavery by his brothers, seemingly to his death, but God amazingly brings what was intended for misfortune to bring Joseph to be second in command over all of Egypt. And there's a moment where his brothers come to Egypt for food because they're about to die and Joseph has this to say to them after he has that big reveal like, "It's me, your brother. I'm alive." He says, "You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives." Despite all the things working against Christ, God still uses it for his good. God's kingdom is a subversive kingdom, disrupting this world of sin with his love, undermining the selfishness and pride with a kingdom of humility and service, challenging the elite and the strong by valuing the poor, the lost, and the least, fighting against corruption and deceit with truth and divine authority. God and his kingdom persevere, endure. They cannot be stopped.

Proverbs 21, 30 says, "There is no wisdom, no insight, no plan that can succeed against the Lord." Do we believe that today? Do you guys believe that? That nothing, nothing as awful as this world is and the things that go against God and how he created things, nothing can stop him. I hope and pray that that is comforting and brings you hope. I want to ask you this. Are you partnering with God in his subversive kingdom? As the currents of society, of culture are heading one way, are you trusting God as we followers of Jesus head the other way? Do we believe and hope and know that despite all the chaos of the world and all the efforts of humanity to pursue selfishness and pride and pleasure, do you know that God is still at work? But there is always hope in him that nothing can succeed against him. Are you confident and assured in God and his kingdom? Or are you prone to fear? Are you prone to anxiousness, to worry, to doubt, to division? God encourage you to partner with God, work with him, sometimes in subtle ways, sometimes in ways that are unseen for a time before the plan is really made known, but to trust him, to pray about those opportunities where he's going to use you and be ready for that opportunity. As we look around at the messiness and the unknown and the brokenness of this world, it's easy to be all doom and gloom about it. But instead, we can see an opportunity for Jesus to save, for God to work, to know that the God we serve can take what is intended to harm and use it for his good, that no scheme or plan that goes against his kingdom will succeed. How does that change your outlook? Knowing that, how does that change your day to day? How might that help us to join in, not on the fear mongering, but on sharing the gospel? Instead of continuing to pass down fear to other people as they're sharing fear with you, how might you combat that with, "You know what? I'm actually not worried. And my hope and my security comes from something not of this world. It comes from God. Because I know that he has me, I'm going to be okay, that he is working through the midst of all this around us, sharing a hope that is found in Christ." We know that Jesus rescues us in ways we often don't understand at the beginning. We look back and are able to see, "Oh, that's what God was doing. I didn't know this at the time. I didn't know. I didn't understand. I didn't know." But after this, this, and this, that brought me to Jesus. That brought me to this place where I could see that I needed him, that he could rescue me. Jesus rescues us in ways we often don't understand. The biggest in history was through the surprising and apparent powerlessness of the cross. If someone were to draw up the rescue plan, I do not think that they would have themselves dying to save everyone on the cross of all things, not a noble, glorious death, but as Pastor Chris said, a criminal death. And yet, we all know today, we live in the power of the cross.

So as we close, I just want to say this. There were those with a misguided hope in this crowd on Palm Sunday at the triumphal entry. They had a misguided hope in Jesus. They forgot that he was, or they didn't know that he was a suffering servant king. They didn't see how God's kingdom was a subversive kingdom working things through all this opposition. But we can learn from Christ's triumphal entry all these years later that during Palm Sunday, as they're welcoming Jesus with the triumphal entry, again, they were ushering a kingdom unknown to them, but it's a kingdom that's been made known to us today. Through his word and through the power of the Holy Spirit, a kingdom that we who believe in Jesus as our Savior are a part of and get to be partners with God in this kingdom. We can help make this kingdom made known to more and more people today. So our prayer as you enter, again, we have those cards. We have, and really that's just an exercise of, we hope you're doing that all the time, that you are praying for opportunities to share the gospel, that you have friends, relationships that are forming there. You're praying for a moment where maybe they bring it up and they say, "Hey, I want to meet and talk to you about something." Or maybe Spirit's going to prompt you to have that conversation. But partner with God in this kingdom and making it known to other people. And through this week, through Holy Week, and if you're on our email list, you're going to get some emails about what each day of Holy Week means and where to maybe spend some time in prayer and reflection on those Holy Days. But at the end, we'll come together next week praising God for the fact that he has risen. Amen?

Let's pray. God, again, we come before you just thankful for this, for your scripture, God, for your truth and a chance that we get to learn from it. And we look back knowing that the people at that time didn't know what kind of king you would be, why they were fully praising you. But God, we know today. So on Palm Sunday, as we look back at that triumphal entry, we want to give you all the praise for the king that Jesus is. The suffering servant king who gave us eternal life, who took on our sin and punishment of death for us so that we could have eternal life with him. And God, as we walk forward in this week, I pray, Lord, that we would spend time each day reflecting on what Jesus went through. The cleansing of the temple, to the teachings with the disciples, to the night that he was betrayed, to the death that he faced on the cross. God, I pray that we would be okay with mourning a bit, with recognizing our sin and bringing it before Jesus, knowing that without him and his sacrifice on the cross, we would be doomed. There is no hope. So God, be with us, give us hope, help us to see that hope and to have a mind and to see opportunities to share that with other people this week. I pray that you would give us boldness, the words to say, and you would bring about those opportunities, God, and that your spirit would be so strong in that moment that we can't help but say something. Just invite them to church, invite them to hear the truth. We trust you, we love you, we give you our everything. We pray this in your name. Amen.

Easter Sunday

Easter Sunday - Hope is RISEN!

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

Easter morning, a Sunday school teacher to ask the kiddos what they knew about Easter. And so she said, "Does anybody know what Easter is about?" And this one little boy raised his hand, he was so excited, he said, "Yes, yes, Easter is when "all my aunts and uncles come over to my house, "eat turkey, watch football, and take naps." And I said, "Well, no, that's kinda not it. "You're thinking of Thanksgiving." And then Susie, she raised her hand, she goes, "Oh, oh, I know, I know." She goes, "We celebrated Easter last year. "We decorated a tree and we had presents and there was milk and cookies. And the teacher goes, "No, I think you're probably, you're thinking about Christmas. Does any," and she's real nervous by this point. She's like, "I don't know if any of the poor kids know what Easter is about." And so she goes, "Okay, anybody know?" And Mina kind of sheepishly raised her hand. She goes, "Well, well, Easter is really about the special day when Jesus hung on the cross and he died and they put him in a tomb for three days. And the teacher goes, "Mina, that's awesome, that's great." And then Mina says, "And then we wait "and Jesus, when he comes out of the tomb, "if he sees his shadow, there's three more weeks of winter." That poor Sunday school teacher. Yeah, yeah. Right. Got some work to do. Yeah. So we're not talking about Groundhog Day today, we're talking about Easter. And before we get started, I love to just pray with us once more. Jesus, thank you for today, God. We continue to give you praise, the honor, the glory, God, that you rose that very first Easter and we celebrate that today. God, we are so excited to be here with you. You are here present, we know it. Your Holy Spirit has been felt this whole morning in this space. And so Jesus, we give you the praise, the honor, and the glory. God, be with us. Help us to transform who you want us to become. God, you have something for each of us today. Maybe we knew that, maybe we're here not by our own personal choice, but we're here maybe with somebody else who invited us, or we woke up and jumped out of bed and we couldn't wait to be here at church today. God, you have a word for each of us. God, may we leave this place different than when we walked in this morning by your power. Pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Amen.

Before we get to our passage this morning, I just wanna get us all on the same page as far as what's happened in the life of Jesus. So we're going to recap what's happened to Jesus since he was betrayed by Judas in the garden of Gethsemane. So since that time, Jesus was handed over, he went through a couple trials, and Pilate, even though he was found innocent, they couldn't really find anything wrong with him, because of the pressure and the politics, he handed him over to be crucified. And at that time, the Roman soldiers mocked him and tortured him to extreme extents. And at that point, after dealing with all of that, and physically reaching the point of exhaustion, his body being tortured, he then has to carry his own cross to the top of the hill. He can't make it all the way. So Simon of Serene helps him carry that cross to the top. And at that time, having to endure all of this, having gone through all of this, reaching this point of exhaustion, he speaks with some women there, Mary and Mary and some of the other women. And even in this moment, he's being Jesus. He's meeting them where they're at, comforting them, offering them grace and love. Pilate puts this sign on Jesus's cross that says, "This is Jesus, King of the Jews.”

He's then crucified and bystanders continue to mock him. A criminal hanging next to him asked Jesus to remember him. And Jesus, again, hanging there on the cross, Dying offers salvation and promises that he will see him in heaven that very day. Jesus dies on the cross. The women have been watching the crucifixion from afar. There is an earthquake and the veil in the temple is torn. And at this point, even some of the dead from nearby tombs are raised to life. Soldier wants to make sure that Jesus is dead And so he pierces the side of Jesus, confirms that Jesus is dead. Joseph of Arimathea, who opposed the crucifixion of Jesus, he's a leader, he asked Pilate to take the body of Jesus and Pilate agrees. And so Jesus' body is placed in a tomb. And at that point, the rock, the stone is rolled in front. It is sealed and there are guards placed to make sure that nothing can come in or out. And then this time, this journey from the cross to the cross, and it just shows what Christ had to endure, what he had to persevere. It's the ultimate humiliation for the Creator being humiliated by His creation. And then on Holy Saturday, just yesterday, this is a day of grief, of sorrow, of pain, of mourning, Jesus is dead, and it's Sabbath. And so no one can do anything about the body. Imagine this agony for the people who love Jesus, his followers, having to take a Sabbath, having to take a day of inactivity, just sitting in their emotions. I don't do that well. I'm a person that if I'm feeling something, if I'm feeling off, I need to resolve it. I need to go make it right. If that's talking to a person, I will drive over, I will text them and say, "How do we do this right now?" I don't do well with sitting in emotions. And I can't imagine the followers of Jesus having to sit in their agony. When they wanted to do something, they wanted to address Jesus' body. They just wanted to do something to express their grief and their love. Saturday must have been one of the hardest days after losing Jesus. It had to be overwhelming to the point where their emotions are swelling and so the first thing after Sabbath was over, they wanted to do something.

So we're in our passage, Matthew 28 verse 1 says this, "After the Sabbath at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb." The very next morning. They finally get to do something for Jesus, for their savior who had died. So the women wanted to go embalm Jesus. We know this from Mark's gospel, that they had brought spices to start this process. They were there to grieve, but they were not at all prepared for what was about to happen. They went there to continue their mourning, to honor and to continue in their adoration for Jesus, but instead.

Verse two says, "There was a violent earthquake, "For an angel of the Lord came down from heaven "and going to tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. "His appearance was like lightning. "His clothes were white as snow. "The guards were so afraid of him, "they shook and became like dead men." This was not the scene that they expected to find when they showed up. They had expected to find, honestly, quite the opposite. another gospel talks about is the women are on their way, they're like, who's gonna move? Oh yeah, who's moving the stone for us? We can't move it. But God had other plans, right? God had a different plan. He wanted to do something different that day. He wanted to do the unexpected. The tombs of those days were much different than a mausoleum or maybe a traditional grave site that we think of today. These were basically caves that were hewn into stone by hand and were basically corked or sealed with another rock because as a body decays, it lets off an unpleasant odor. And so these places were basically to be the only way that they could have something to be sealed in the manner that would not disturb the rest of life around smelling dead bodies all the time. And so this rock, in a sense, there's a couple different theories of what these rocks were like. We have the traditional round stone and the kind of rail that kind of rolls back and forth, but when you say stone, we don't realize like how big these things were. We're talking one to two tons, eight feet in diameter, one to two inches thick. There's even some studies in archaeology that did this and they found these tombs that were sealed with basically just ten-foot boulders. And they were just kind of like shoved in there almost like a cork.

And so for Mary and Mary to show up and to see this thing moved was pretty impressive. This is not what they expected to find whatsoever. And I love what even it says, this verbiage here, that the stone rolled back. There's some scholars that actually see that in the tense of the original language and the original account written down. Some would translate as thrown aside. So this rock just wasn't just like, "Oh, nice. Nice little ramp it rolled over to." literally thrown aside to a place where like you walk up and go, "That rock's not supposed to be there. That's supposed to be over there." And so they show up and this is the absolute unexpected. The rock was trying to hold Jesus back. As Pastor Andre said, there were guards there keeping watch. The Pharisees and Pilate were so scared that Jesus was either gonna do what he said he was gonna do or that someone was gonna try to steal Jesus to make it look like like Jesus had done what He said He was going to do. And so they had the elite of the elite, the top soldiers of the day keeping watch over this tomb. I'm sorry, but no fisherman is taken out of it, a Roman soldier in that day. And then on top of all of that, it is actually sealed with a royal seal that basically says, "Do not enter upon death," essentially. This was not traditional. This was out of the ordinary. This was strange. When people buried people, they put the stone there and they walked away. There was no further activity that took place at graves. But there was something special that God was doing. See, they put Jesus in the ground. They rolled a stone in front of the entrance. They proclaimed a royal decree to seal the tomb. They had guards watching and yet it was all undone. Hope that very first Easter overcame anything that humans tried to do to stop Jesus from being alive. Hope has overcome. So why do we say all this? Everything humanly possible was done to contain Jesus in that grave. And yet the hope of that very first Easter overcame it all. Physical barriers, soldiers, kings, political leaders, powers, authorities on earth said, "This story is over." But God said, "I still got something to say. I still have something to say about this and the resurrection of Jesus was not a quiet one. We just read about earthquake and shining like lightning and divine heavenly beings, angels coming down. This was a loud, loud event. There was not one person, thing, power, anything that was gonna do to push back against that. The hope of Christ was proclaimed that very first Easter. Hope overcame everything in order to change everything for the glory of God.

Our passage continues in verse 5 when it says, "The angel said to the women, 'Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus who is crucified. He is not here. He has risen just as He said. Come and see the place where He lay. Then go quickly and tell His disciples He has risen from from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him. Now I have told you." In Luke's account, it says, "In their fright, the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said, 'Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, he has risen.'" Church, hope is alive in the person of Jesus Christ. For the women at that moment, all they were trying to process was that their friend, their beloved, their Messiah was still alive. Just a complete 180 in their hearts and minds. I don't know if you've ever received good news after maybe expecting or sitting in the worst news, but it kind of takes a while for your heart and mind to catch up with what you've just heard. And you're just, wait, hold on, I was in this place and I was prepared for this, my mind was already here, I was making plans for that. And then you get told the opposite And it just doesn't like, "Oh great, now we're good." It takes a while, like, "What? What are you saying?" And so I think in this moment for the women, hope is sinking in. In Jesus, there is hope. And because Jesus lives, hope is alive. In the past three years of Jesus' life, he was sharing the good news, the good news about the kingdom of God, about how he would reign, and what this kingdom would look like. the news of salvation. But that news changes now. We go from the gospel, which used to be this common word in the Roman Empire, talking about this herald that would go from town to town, sharing the gospel, meaning any victory that the Roman Empire had, that's what they would share. Rome won, that was the gospel. Well, Christianity hijacked that word, which I love and said, this is ours now. We have the best news. And we're gonna go and share it with everyone. And so gospel goes from little G to the big G. The gospel is the best news that Jesus is alive. Their savior, their Messiah, their Lord, their teacher, their friend, their hope is not dead, but is alive. Hope is alive.

And church, I want us to realize this too, without the resurrection, there is no hope. Paul says this in 1 Corinthians 15, he says, "For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile. You are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life, we have hope in Christ. We are of all people, most to be pitied, but Christ indeed has indeed been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. See, without the resurrection, our faith is worthless. True faith has power because of who we believe in, not just in the fact that we believe. A lot of people will just say, if you believe in something, that'll get you somewhere in life. No, true power comes in who we believe in, which is Jesus. Without the resurrection, we don't have the forgiveness of sins. Without the resurrection, there is no hope of heaven. But because the resurrection is real, because Christ did indeed raise from the dead, we have hope. We have hope that we are forgiven. We have hope that our faith in God matters. And we have hope of a future where there is no more sin, where everything that is marred and stained and damaged and destroyed by sin will be undone. Hope is alive. And in our passage, the angel had instructions of what to do with this hope. And what are they to do with the news? With this new reality as it's sinking in, well, they're to go and share the gospel. These first witnesses, these first believers, We're tasked by the angel to go and tell. And so what do we do with that news today? Well, for us, when our reality has changed by meeting the one who is hope, Jesus, and the one who gives us hope, we too have been tasked with the responsibility.

Matthew chapter 28 continues on in verse 8. It says, "So the women hurried away from the tomb, "afraid yet filled with joy," these paradoxing emotions. And they ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly, Jesus met them. "Greetings," he said. I almost wanted to use salutations. The most formal way of saying hello. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, "Do not be afraid. Go, tell my brothers to go to Galilee. There they will see me." Jesus's resurrection that very first Easter changed eternity. For the very first time, death had been defeated once and for all. We have the account of Jesus raising his friend Lazarus from the dead, but at some point, Lazarus dies again. 'Cause that was not a permanent resurrection. That was a temporary. See, up to this point, All that people knew was temporary hope. You get good news one day, you have hope, and then the next moment it's shattered. You wake up and you think this is gonna be a great day, and then something happens. You get the phone call, you get the email, you get the text, and our lives are thrown into ruins. But the hope that Jesus brought that very first Easter was one that was permanent, was one that was eternal, the one that was everlasting. So what is our response in this hope that is eternal? Our first response is the same of those who saw Jesus along the way. They bowed down and they worshiped him. That's our response. They came face to face with this eternal hope in Jesus on that encounter, and Jesus changed their life. and they fell down and they worshiped. They understood the weight, the significance of Christ in that moment and saw very much of when they last saw him being different. See, the last time that they saw him, they had put him in the tomb and walked away. Very much dead, very much permanent, very much hopeless. And then on their way, He shows up and says, "I'm alive. I'm risen. The story's not over." the temporary in that moment became eternal.

The second way we can respond is to go and tell. Our calling and our purpose for each and every one of us is to spread this hope all around. Your calling is to be a hope dealer. Your calling and where you live, where you learn, where you work, where you play, wherever you go, you are taking this hope of eternity with you. And you are sharing it with everyone that you come into contact with. That's what Jesus said here to go and tell. For those of us who have experienced this hope in Christ, we have to be sharing it with others. The world around us is hurting. The world around us is in dire need of Christ. There's hurt, there's misery, there's panic, there's uncertainty, there's despair all around us. And I see it this way. I see it as us standing on the shore of a rushing river, in a river that is filled with fear and trepidation and worry and anxiety and pain and stress, suffering and failure. And these waves are trying to pull people down and to drown them in this rushing river. And you and I, for those who have the hope in Jesus, are standing on the shore with a rescue buoy in our hands. That is the gospel of Jesus. Would we not throw it to save those who are drowning? See the best part about that is we don't have to do the rescuing. That's the buoy. That's Jesus. Jesus does the rescuing. But we have to throw it. We can't help but just stand there and hold it in our hands. Who needs to know? Who in your life needs to know this story of hope? Maybe for others of us, you'd say, "Pastor, I'm in that river. I'm drowning every day. day. I got fear, I got anxiety, I got worry, I got stress, I got problems on top of problems, on top of problems. There is no hope in my life. Well I want to tell you today that Jesus has a life buoy to rescue you today. Now Now it's not gonna fix everything overnight, but what I will tell you is the temporary hope that you cling to from moment to moment as you drown will become a permanent hope in your life, a hope that is eternal, a hope that nothing can ever take away, a hope that will be with you through every single thing that you walk through in every single thing that you face. And I'll tell you, it's the greatest hope that you could ever have. And until you experience that hope, and step into that hope and say, "God, you know what, I'm done. "I can't do this anymore, I need you." You don't know what this true hope is like. There's so many of you in this room that are just nodding along with me, 'cause you know that hope. You have that hope every single day, and it changes your life. Not only here, but it changes your life in eternity. This hope continues on forever and ever and ever and ever. That very first Easter, God's love shone through the cross in Jesus's death. And the darkest day that we thought all hope was lost, God said, "I still have something to say." And love conquered death. In Jesus conquering death, you and I can live in this new life. We can have this new life free from pain, suffering, uncertainty, despair, hurt, fear, to live in a new life with purpose, with freedom, with hope. This is the story of Easter. This is the story that God wants you for this moment and right now. And that feeling that you're having inside of you with struggle and uncertainty, but there's this drawing that you have. That's the love of God. That's Jesus saying, I want to take care of you. I wanna fix it. I wanna make it right. You just gotta let me in. Let me, God is saying, give you new life today.

Our prayer is that all of you would be reminded or would know undoubtedly that hope has overcome, that hope is alive and that hope is eternal. And we have hope because Jesus shares his resurrection with us. And so we know that even as we endure this life, that is full of pain and sorrow and man, There's just so much sadness that doesn't end. But we know that after we die, we too will experience what Jesus experienced, where we get to be with God in heaven. We're so thankful for the fact that Jesus shares in his victory with us. And that's what we celebrate on this day. We celebrate Jesus' victory and the fact that we are a part of that victory too. So as we close in prayer, Let's remember and praise God for the hope that we have in Christ. If you guys could bow your heads with me. God, we come before you with joy, with humility, and with full confidence, knowing that you raised Jesus from the dead, that the resurrection is real, that the resurrection has very real implications for our lives, ones that bring us joy and hope, a hope that allows us to endure through this life, to live it for you, to join you in eternity. Lord, we praise you because without you we have no hope. We praise you for defeating sin and death and extending hope to us. And we pray that you would fill us today with hope. There are some in this room who need hope desperately. You know exactly what's going on in everyone's life. You know those who came here with joy, and for that we praise you. We know that there are some who came here barely being able to come here, Lord. Just took everything for them to show up. And God, I pray that you would fill them with your hope. Church, if you're here with your eyes closed, heads bowed, If you're here and you are in need of change in your life, if you're in need of Jesus and you're in need of that hope, I want you to pray this prayer silently to yourself in your heart. Repeat after me in your heart, say, Lord, give me hope. I need you and I can't do this life without you. The only hope in this world is in you. "God, forgive me of my sins as I surrender my life to you. "Thank you for your salvation." And God, we pray for anyone who just prayed that prayer, we praise you, God, that you can look forward, that they can look forward to an eternal life with you. And in that eternal life, in eternity, in heaven, they are free from pain, free from suffering, despair, and hurt. God, give them a new life with purpose, freedom, and hope.

And church, for the rest of you, as Pastor Chris shared, I want you to think of someone in your life who needs to know about this hope that is found in Jesus, only in Jesus. And I want you to pray this in your hearts, just quietly to yourself. God, give me strength and boldness and humility and vulnerability in moments where your spirit is leading me to share. God, give me a heart that cares more about others' eternity than any judgment we can face here on this earth. God, help my heart to yearn for this hope to be seen through my life, the way I live and the way I talk. And Lord, give me the words to say to share this hope when that time comes. God, we give you all the glory. We give you all the praise. Thank you for Jesus's life, death, and resurrection. And thank you for the hope that we have in Him. Amen.

Palm Sunday 2024

Palm Sunday - Jesus’ Triumphant Entry Into Jerusalem

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

Welcome! We're so excited that you're here joining us on Palm Sunday. Wow, it's so full, I love it. If you're new, we would love to meet you. So Pastor Chris and I will be under the green tent after the service, and if you could just introduce yourself, we would love to say hi and get to know you. So thank you for being here this Sunday. We're taking a break, as Pastor Chris said, from our Philippians series. We'll come back to that in about a month and finish off the letter, but for now we're going to turn our attention towards this final week of Jesus's life as we approach Easter.

I want to begin by telling you a funny story I heard from another pastor recently. It tells a story about a five-year-old boy named Sam who one weekend gets sick. And so he decides to stay home from church, and he stays home with his dad, and his mom takes his two siblings to church. And when they get back, Sam notices that they're carrying palm branches in their hands. And so he says, "Mom, what are the palm branches? What do they mean?" And his mom said, "Well, today was Palm Sunday." And when Jesus walked by everyone, waved palm branches, and said, "Hosanna, praise the Lord." And the five-year-old Sam thinks about it for a second, and he says, "Great, but one Sunday I don't go to church and Jesus shows up.”

We want to be like Sam. We don't want to miss what God is doing on Palm Sunday. And so that, like, again, Pastor Chris said, this begins Holy Week. And our prayer for all of us is is that this week we pay attention to the ways in which God wants to meet us this week. We want to begin with this question today of what is Palm Sunday all about? Why do we, meaning even the global church, take time out of whatever series, whatever we're covering, and everyone around the world is taking a break to have a Palm Sunday? Let's acknowledge its significance. And so this is the day, as you know, that Jesus was hailed as king, and he would bring a new kind of kingdom to the world. At the time, where this is happening, there were two separate ideas of what that kingdom would look like. The one that Israel had in mind, and the one that Jesus knew, he would be ushering in. From Israel's perspective, you have to know their history a bit. And so, hundreds of years before this, they've fallen away from God. The Israel's kings over and over again have rebelled against God, have chosen their own way. The people would not listen to the prophets that God had sent to try to get their attention, to try to get them to repent. And so God eventually let them suffer the consequences of their actions by letting them be defeated by other nations, by letting them be taken captive. And in captivity, God is still sending prophets to say, "Hey, I have a plan. I have a plan of redemption." And these prophecies pointed to a future redeemer, a savior, a Messiah, a rescuer, a king. And so in their minds, if you're Israel over hundreds of years, you kind of have these pieces to the puzzle. And for them, they assembled those pieces in a way where they thought of the future king being a warrior king, someone who would establish a new earthly empire.

They thought that this new king, this leader, this rescuer, would release them from any oppressive regimes and kingdoms that ruled over them, that this new king would conquer anyone that opposed them, just like the kings of old, like Saul and David and Solomon. However, Jesus, in a different perspective, in the true perspective, he taught about a different kind of kingdom. He was also teaching and showing them that he was gonna be a different kind of king, though they didn't realize that at the time. So he'd been teaching for three years. He's had run-ins with religious leaders. He's performed miracles. He's been discipling a close group of people. And now as we come to our passage this morning, the pace of Jesus' story quickens at a breakneck speed to the climax at the cross. So I'm gonna go ahead and pray, and then we're gonna dive into our passage this morning. Would you guys pray with me?

God, thank you for this day. Thank you for the chance to gather with each other, to praise you, to learn more about you. And we do come before you, Lord, with humble hearts on this Palm Sunday, recognizing your triumphal entry to Jerusalem. And God, I pray that as we study your word, you would help us to realize the significance and the sanctity of this passage and what is happening here in the life of Jesus. And at the end of this time together, we'd be drawn closer to you and have a deeper appreciation and understanding of who you are and what you've done. We pray this in your name, amen.

All right, I'm just gonna go verse by verse. We're gonna be in Matthew 21. We're gonna start in verse one. And so you can follow along. I think we'll have the verses on the screen. But verse one says, "As they approached Jerusalem and came to Beth, Bahaag, I cannot say this word, Bethphage, on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples. Pause right there. The disciples, if you picture this scene, the disciples and Jesus are on the final ridge at the Mount of Olives and they can see the city in the distance. But they're not alone. This is Passover season, where thousands of people are heading to Jerusalem by the same route. And Jesus knows, is aware of this upcoming scene and what this will look like for the people that are with him and for the religious leaders that are in Jerusalem. He knows the scriptures and the prophecies, so this is a very loaded scene for him. He knows what is happening. But for the people, this is a huge group, thousands upon thousands outside, going with Jesus to Jerusalem. Verse 2 says, "Saying to them," to the two disciples, "Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to me. "If anyone says anything to you, "say that the Lord needs them, "that he will send them right away." This is, this little scene right here, even just with this donkey, is hundreds of years in the making, and we'll get to that in a second. But this is where those expectations for the people of Israel come into play in approaching Jerusalem.

Right here in this scene, scripture starts to be fulfilled. Prophecies begin to be fulfilled. Jerusalem is of huge significance. It's the capital city, it's the central place of worship, it's the central place of politics where people would travel for Passover, it's where the king back in the day would reign. It's the central location for Israel's self-understanding of life under God. This will become truer than ever imagined. Jesus coming to Jerusalem means so much, And Jesus' approach is full of purpose and meaning, and the Jewish people pick up on that. They just have a different conclusion than what Jesus is actually saying and doing. Verses four and five say, "This took place to fulfill "what was spoken through the prophet. "Say to daughter Zion, 'See, your king comes to you, "'gentle and riding on a donkey, "'and on a colt the foal of a donkey.'" Right here, Matthew is quoting Zechariah 9:9. Old Testament prophet from long ago, telling that this is how the Messiah would enter. I wanna focus on how this king is described in this passage here. It says lowly, which can be translated as peaceful or humble or gentle. And this picture of humble and peaceful is in stark contrast with the aggressive military and leader of popular messianism. Instead of aggressive and offensive, Jesus is gentle and compassionate. Instead of overpowering and power hungry, Jesus is approachable and humble. This hearkens back to earlier words in the Gospel of Matthew, as Matthew has tried to paint a picture for the readers of who this Messiah is. In Matthew 12, quoting Isaiah 42, he says that Jesus is a servant. In Matthew 11, he says that Jesus has a gentle and humble heart.

Again, just trying to paint the picture that even though people are expecting this kind of leader, one that will take over, one that will lead an uprising, Jesus is actually a very different kind of leader. And if his demeanor and character are any indicators of how different of a leader he is, it also shows just how different his kingdom will be. Verses six and seven, we continue, it says, "The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. "They brought the donkey and the colt "and placed their cloaks on them for Jesus to sit on." So disciples show a lot of respect and reverence. I don't know, how many of you have ridden a horse before? Yeah, oh wow, quite a bit, oh my goodness. All right, I've only ridden a horse like once or twice, But I was very thankful for a saddle. It was very comfortable, and I can't imagine doing it without. If you have, props to you. That seems pretty legit. But in this scene, Jesus gets the treatment, right? He gets some cloaks, makes a very soft saddle for him. And again, just more painting the picture that this is special, right? This is something to be revered.

Verse eight says, "A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. This is like the red carpet scene, right? We see, kind of have images maybe of people lining whatever street they're on, and now the road is just covered, and Jesus is on this donkey, and he's approaching the city. I was trying to think of something similar, and maybe it's like those motorcades. Maybe, I don't know, we don't live in San Francisco. But the last time the San Francisco Giants won the World Series, the city celebrated, and all the team is in the streets, and people are crowded around the streets, and the confetti's falling down from the sky, and it's just a party. It's like, yeah, I was cheering, and yay for the team. That's kind of maybe similar to what is happening here, but probably tenfold, because the meaning of this scene is way more important than the Giants winning a World Series. But this is huge fanfare. This is massive, and it's a crowd. It's exciting. It is a huge scene, a joyous scene. Verse 9 says, "The crowds then went ahead of him, and those that followed shouted, 'Hosanna to the Son of David! "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, "Hosanna in the highest heaven." Hosanna is a Greek form of the Hebrew word translated save us which sounds like a plea, but in this case, it's more of just an exclamation, acknowledging of who this person is and what they could do. Save us, Hosanna. And they're shouting, save us, son of David, which is a reference and a way of saying king, sent by God. They are giving praise to the Lord of Heaven, to Jesus, which is the right response. This is what they should be doing. They get this part right. They have the Messiah before them that God sent, and they are just praising him with everything that they have. They just have a misunderstanding of what this next week in Jesus' life will look like.

This is 10 and 11 read, "When Jesus entered Jerusalem, "the whole city was stirred and asked, 'Who is this?' "The crowds answered, 'This is Jesus, "the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.'" So once this crowd reaches the city, the city itself is like, what's going on? There's a party coming towards us. Who are we celebrating? What's happening? And so the crowd informed, you know, the rumor just starts spreading, like, hey, this is the prophet, this is Jesus. And prophet of Nazareth doesn't sound as exciting as king, But for the people, this would definitely have overtones of this is the Messiah. This is the one that we have been waiting for. After years and years of silence from God, finally, He has sent the one that we've been waiting for. Jesus was here to bring about His heavenly kingdom into reality, but the road to glory for Jesus has to get a lot darker before it gets any better. because he knows what entering Jerusalem really meant.

I wanna walk through the life of Jesus together in this week following Palm Sunday, in our week coming up here. Jesus would enter into the city on what would become Palm Sunday, then the following day is Monday, and on Monday, Jesus enters the temple, and he's angry, he's very upset. He's upset that the religious leaders have allowed the temple, this place that is supposed to be holy, that is supposed to be a very unique place where God and humanity meet, where there is shalom, which means everything that God intended, it's happening there, but instead the religious leaders have let the temple become a place of worshiping money and corruption, and Jesus is not having it. And so he expresses his anger, And he would further upset the religious leaders who were already pretty upset with him. And the tension between them would reach a point of no return.

Tuesday, in Jesus' life, he would continue to teach at the temple, trying to heal the corruption that had been present for so long. Teaching this is what it's supposed to be. Teaching about his kingdom, what's going to happen. But as he's doing that, the tensions continue to rise.

And then Wednesday of Jesus's life, this is the day where plans are set in motion to capture and to kill Jesus.

The next day, Thursday, Jesus's life, we call it Maundy Thursday. Maundy, which comes from the Latin to mandate. And he would gather his disciples. He would wash their feet. He would break bread with them. And then he would command them or mandate them "to serve and love one another." What he knows is such a significant meal with them, that's his most important command, "to serve and love one another.”

And then that night, things get very dark. And he goes to the garden to pray, and then we go into Good Friday. And as Pastor Chris said, it's a very dark day. This is the day where people's cries turn from, From Hosanna, praise Jesus, return to crucify him. He would stand trial that morning, he would be tortured, he would carry his own cross to the top of the hill, and there he'd be crucified and give his life, becoming the ultimate sacrifice to save people from the punishment of their sins. It's the darkest day in history. It's the day that the Son of God died. And yet, it's a part of God's plan. As dark as it is, this is what God intended. And Jesus, who has been given the royal treatment almost a week before this, on Palm Sunday, knows that this is coming. He's entering the city, being celebrated, Having people shout Hosanna and knows what this week looks like.

And then in this week of Jesus' life, there's Saturday, what we call Holy Saturday. And this is a day of in-between. This is a day of lament, between lament and hope, where Jesus is still in the grave, but we, being on the other side of this whole event, know that he wants to come the next day. And so it's just the day of in-between. we're in between sorrow and joy, between grief and hope, between loss and gain, between death and life. We don't wanna rush past this day. Everyone is so excited to get to Easter, and rightfully so. It's the biggest day, as Pastor Chris said, the Super Bowl of our Christian faith. But being present in each day is so important. And so this Saturday, be present in this in-between, where we're grieving what happened and yet hopeful for what is about to happen, what we're going to celebrate.

And then on Sunday, Easter Sunday, we know that when the tomb, this is when the tomb where Jesus lay would be found empty. And the world would discover that Jesus lives, that he is truly God, that Jesus would begin his reign in this new kingdom. And so next week we get to celebrate the best day. And it means that death is defeated, that Satan and sin do not win. And that means for those who believe, we have eternal life with God. So I wanted to walk through this week, and especially today, because for Jesus, Palm Sunday ushered him into the toughest week of his life. And on this day, in this passage, we learn some important things about Jesus. Palm Sunday teaches us, first, that Jesus is the fulfillment of prophecy. God is sovereign and he is in control. And he has had a plan of redemption since Genesis 3, when sin entered into the world, he had a plan. And that plan was fulfilled in the life and death and resurrection of Jesus. The savior who has been foretold for years, all throughout the Old Testament, comes to fruition here. And God's plan never fails. What he says will come true.

Secondly, Palm Sunday teaches us that Jesus is worthy to be praised. Just as the people were praising Jesus on the road, shouting Hosanna, giving their utmost respect and reverence to Jesus, this is truly what he deserves. Jesus is worthy and requires our worship. He is the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, our Redeemer, our Savior, our Messiah. What other response do we have but to praise Him for what He's done for us.

And thirdly, Jesus, Palm Sunday teaches us that Jesus is not always what is expected. The Jewish people, when praising Jesus on this Palm Sunday, on the road, we're expecting this new earthly kingdom. And we're expecting this in the next days for it to go very differently, for there to be an uprising, for them to be in weeks time on top of the world. this is the new power that's in place, our lives are gonna change, we're gonna become top dog in the known world again, just like we were back in King David and Solomon, we're going to reach new heights of earthly glory, is what they thought. They were thinking like Caesar or King David. You see, often when it comes to leaders, we're drawn towards big personalities, powerful communicators, result producing leaders. rather than persons of beautiful character. Jesus is humble, meek, lowly, and gentle. Maybe not the first words that we would use to describe a great leader. And yet Jesus is the ultimate leader.

An author and pastor, Paul David Tripp writes this. He says, "Do we really look for leaders "who are known for their gentleness? Do we esteem leaders who have their vision and emotions under control so that they're not controlling, demanding, or easily corrupted? In Jesus, we no longer need to look horizontally for what can only be found vertically. Jesus wasn't the militaristic leader or influential political leader, but he was gentle and lowly, peaceful, a servant come to sacrifice himself. The next week in Jesus' life is not at all what the Jewish people expected. It's not the kind of leader they expected, it's not the kind of kingdom they expected, and yet it's exactly what they needed. It's exactly what God had planned.

So, given what we've learned about Jesus from our passage, let me ask a few things that you can talk with God about this week as you reflect on these truths. First, do you trust and live knowing that God is in control? It's easy to say it. Yes, I know that God is in control. Yes, I believe that. But do we actually live that way? We are all fighting worries and anxieties. And oftentimes those worries and anxieties lead us to wanting to take more control. The more the world around us seems out of control, our grip gets firmer. We say, "I gotta do more." But we have to remember that Jesus knows everything, knows us, knows the situation, and he has a plan. Even when we think we have control, and then things, often things later go sideways, things get chaotic, it becomes very challenging, overwhelming, we have to remember from the very beginning that Jesus is in control. So do we trust and live knowing that he is in control? Trusting that the plans that he has made and the work that he is doing in us, he will finish. Sometimes we do. If you're reflecting right now, you're like, yeah, sometimes, that's good. And that's part of the Christian faith and the Christian life, is to learn how to do that more and more. To continually give up control, to surrender to him, submit to him. All right, that's the first question.

Secondly, is Jesus king in your life? Is he receiving all the praise, all the reverence, all the worship that he deserves? It can be easy for us reading these, the Bible and the stories here, to criticize the Jewish people for turning their words of praise, of hosanna, to words of crucify him. but can also be easy for us today to go from praising God on a Sunday in the middle of a service, to then the very next day living a very different life. To living a life that is not at all dependent on Jesus, where he is not reigning over our lives, where we are living out of selfishness, out of pride, independent from God, only giving God a few moments of our day, if that, when really we should be living with him as our king every moment of every day. So do we give him our praise continuously, worshiping him with every facet of our life, living for him daily? Is Jesus king in your life all the time?

Last question. What are our expectations of Jesus? Do we try to define who we think Jesus should be and what he should do? Maybe like Israel, we have thoughts as to what Jesus will do for us. It's like, oh, God, I'm sick again. Can you, Jesus, I think you should make me better right away. This is my plan. These are my thoughts that I think are great. So if you could do that for me, I think we're on the same page. Or Jesus, I'm having relationship issues. Can you please help that other person to see that I'm right? That would be great. This is our will, right, God? Maybe we're feeling stuck at work. We're like, Jesus, if you could get that promotion going for me, get that ball rolling, please. I've been working faithfully, being quiet about it, just a humble worker, can you please do the things that I want you to do?

We often think that we know who Jesus should be and what he should do in our lives. But just as he was a different leader than the Jews expected, different from the way of the world, we must recognize that Jesus works in our lives Probably differently from what we expect or what we may think is best. Because he calls us to the path of compassion and love. He calls us to serve and to sacrifice. He calls us to put others before ourselves. And he calls us to endure and to submit. Heading into different seasons of life, we think, God, I think this will go best if, and fill in the blank, and we give God the answers and expectations, when really our hearts and our prayers should reflect what Jesus taught us, which is, "Lord, not my will, but yours." It's a prayer that Jesus would pray himself in the garden before being betrayed, and it's hard. It's hard to pray that prayer, "Not my will, but yours." but we wanna walk like Jesus as He has walked before us, walk in His footsteps and surrender to God. So that's our prayer this week. We wanna be aligned with what God is doing in our lives. And again, our prayer today and this week is to pay attention to the ways that Jesus wants to meet us this week. We went through those days of Holy Week to encourage you to walk that with Jesus this week. So tomorrow when Jesus years ago gets angry, think about those emotions. Think about what Jesus is going through. He's got angry at the temple. He has a righteous anger because he wants the people to have a place to commune with God. And then on Tuesday, he's trying to heal. He's trying to make things right and sit with that, dwell on that, meditate on that on Tuesday. And every day this week, Wednesday, where plans are made for his capture and his death on the cross. And then Thursday, the command for all of us to serve and love one another. Sit with everything that Jesus did this week so that when we come together on Friday to mourn and to grieve, we can be there with the full emotion of what is happening. And then on Sunday, we can come together with the biggest praise that we can ever muster because we know fully to the best that we can what that meant and what Jesus endured through this week to get to that point on the cross and then to rise again. This holy week, pay attention to where Jesus wants to meet you.

Let's pray. God, again, thank you for your word that encourages so much. And God, we do wanna walk with Jesus this week. It's so encouraging to know that every emotion we feel, Jesus has felt. And so this week I pray that we would feel close to you, God, wherever we're at, whether it is a great week and we're having lots of joy and excitement and happiness, God, I pray that we would be rejoicing with you. And God, if it's a difficult week, if it's challenging, If we feel like we're the end of ourselves, God, I pray that we would be reminded of what Jesus endured and be close with you in that, to suffer whatever we're suffering through with Jesus by our side. God, I pray that you would deepen our relationship, that you would deepen our love for you so that we can come together and worship fully with you in this next week. We give you all the praise. We love you with everything we have. Help us to worship you. Help us to recognize that you are king. God, make us better servants of your kingdom. We pray this in your son's name, Amen.

Easter Sunday 2023

HE IS RISEN - John 20:15-28

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

Well happy Easter everybody. Happy Easter. I gotta do it one more time. do it one more time. We got some more people who came in here. So I got to do this again. I get to do it once a year. Okay, so I'm going to say he is risen and I want to hear a shout back. He has risen indeed. Okay, here we go. He has risen. He has risen. He has risen. Oh, yes. That was good. Well, today we're going to talk about Easter or Christmas or Easter. Easter. Christmas. I'm just ready. I'm fired up. Today is awesome and exciting. I hope you guys have been enjoying yourself this morning. It has been an awesome, awesome Sunday. But I want to talk to us today about Easter and kind of have maybe a different perspective on Easter. We come in, we hear about the empty tomb, and we hear about Jesus not being in there, but we want to walk kind of through a couple different people and what their perspective was in Easter. And we know that context is everything. And sometimes that our view is not God's view, right? Our view isn't God's view because if you would have thought about Good Friday and Jesus dying on the cross, what would have been seen from below would have felt like all is lost. See, the view from below is all is lost, but God's view, respected from above, is all is one. And that's what we celebrate today. That's what we want to talk about this morning and to focus in on Easter being all is one. He is written. He conquered death on the grave and came out. And when that we share in his resurrection and because of his resurrection, we can have eternal life with God in heaven. And three people I want to talk about this morning. The first of which is going to be Mary Mary. This incredible, incredible lady here in this story. A person who loved Jesus deeply. And so we open up in the story on Easter Sunday and we're seeing this encounter. And Mary has gotten up early. She's gotten up way early. You think, "Oh, what a go-getter!" She's a first stop, go make it happen. But the thing is, Mary is actually breaking the Jewish ritual of grieving and mourning the death of a family member. They are supposed to, as the Jewish culture says, you're supposed to stay home for a week after death and to mourn and then you go out. So Mary here, we read, "Oh, look at Mary getting up early, getting things done." No, she's actually trying to sneak out early before anybody can see her because she was not able to finish as much as she wanted to bury Jesus in the proper way. She loves Jesus deeply and she's sneaking out here trying to finish the burial process that had to pause at sundown when Jesus died.

So I'm gonna go ahead and read our passage this morning is John 20. If you're in the Bible, the pews in front of you, it's page 1087. And so John 20 11 through 14 says this, "Now Mary stood outside the tomb, crying. And as she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus's body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. They asked her, "Woman, why are you crying?" "They have taken my Lord away," she said. "I don't know where they have put him." At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there. But she did not realize that it was Jesus.

How could Mary miss that this is Jesus? Having spent so much time with him, wouldn't she have recognized Jesus' face standing right there in front of him? Well, we know that this is a lot to process, right? This is a moment of grief for her. And in moments of grief, there's a lot of weight that people are dealing with. When people grieve, they're busy dealing with what's inside of them, right? What's inside the heart. And they don't have the capacity always to deal with what's going on around them. So while grief was a part of their lives in dealing with Jesus's death, it's not going to be the last emotion that they feel in this story regarding Christ. So the scripture continues on. It says in verse 15, "He asked her, being Jesus, 'Why are you crying? Who is it that you're looking for?'" Jesus is kind of messing with Mary here a little bit. Still got a sense of humor. I love that about Jesus. Thinking he was a gardener, she said, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him." And then Jesus said to her, "Mary." She turned toward him and cried out, "Aramaic, Rabbanai." She knew. She knew in that very moment, the voice of Jesus, that it was him. This wasn't some random gardener dude, hanging out, just doing, trimming some bushes, And cutting some weeds on an early morning like like this was Jesus there and when he says Mary She melts because she knows Jesus that's who it is Have you ever found yourself in a place where you didn't recognize somebody and then you heard their voice? I I've had this situation sometimes where I've been shopping in a grocery store And I've been going down the aisles and all of a sudden I get this feeling somebody's following me. And I'm like, "What's going on?" And I find out later, somebody who knows me and somebody goes, "I know that beard. I've seen that beard somewhere." But I'm out of context. You're like, "They let him out of that church during the week? He doesn't sleep in this back corner room here? Like, they let him out?" Yes, I go and I buy food. I'm a normal person, okay? But you're sitting there and then all of a sudden maybe you hear me say something. something. Maybe I walk into that ice cream aisle and they got my favorite pint there of just the, "Oh, so good," and I said, "Praise the Lord!" And then you go, "I know that guy! I've heard that voice! That's Pastor Chris! I've seen him!" That's what Mary happens here. Mary hears his voice and goes, "This is Jesus! Oh my gosh!" Continue on, verse 18, "Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news. Can you imagine? You just come, I can imagine, like a Kramer entrance on Seinfeld into the house, just pow'n in going, "He's alive!" And they're like, "Mary, pipe down, calm down, calm down." No. And she told them these things that had said to her. And on the evening of the first day of the week when the disciples were together and the doors were all locked for fear Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you," and they had to change their undercloaks. In that moment, the disciples are gathered in fear. They're afraid of death by association. Everybody knew this group of disciples were Jesus' crew, that they had walked with them, they had traveled with them, they had performed miracle wisdom, they had lived with him, they had sat under his teaching, they were they were associated with. And so these disciples, we read this and go like, "Why are they so scared?" Well, they're afraid they're gonna get killed. They just saw their Savior, their Lord, their King get killed before their eyes and they think we're next. But then Jesus shows up and he says, "Write there, 'Peace be with you.'" And after he said this, he showed them his hands and his sides to prove who he was. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. You've found yourself in situation where you were just on an emotional roller coaster. You went from a place to where you felt like all hope was lost, everything was gone, nothing was gonna write and be happening to you, and then all of a sudden, boom, you're overjoyed. This is what the disciples are going, they're on an emotional roller coaster right now these three days. But Jesus shows up them and loves them so much to show up in their lives and to show them His hands and His side, He goes, "I am Jesus.”

It seems that all the disciples are on an emotional rollercoaster except for one. We skip ahead in our story to verse 24 and it says, "Now Thomas, also known as Didymus, one of the 12, "was not with the disciples when Jesus came. "So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord, but he said to them, "unless I see the nail marks in his hands, "put my finger where the nails were, "put my hand into his side, I will not believe. 26 says, "A week later, his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. And though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, 'Peace be with you.' And then he said to Thomas, 'Put your finger here, see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it on my side. Stop doubting and believe.' And Thomas said to him, 'My Lord and my God.'" Comprehending who God is and what he does, it's a lot, right? And we all process at different rates, some of us similar to others, but hearing the news that Jesus is alive again would be a lot to process for anyone. It's a lot for Thomas in this moment.

So why does this matter? Why are we reading about this? Why are we telling this to you? Why are we saying things? What does it matter? Because I think the reality is, as we are honest with ourselves, life is a lot harder than we want to admit. Life goes like this. You're born into this world crying. You're bullied on the playground. Your teen heart is broken. You go to college. The bank account shrinks. Bad reports back from your doctor about your health. You blink and your kids are grown up and then you don't have any more cartilage in your knees. And that's life. Right? Isn't that how life goes? And we are all somewhere on a different progress in that but life is really harder than it seems and God here in this moment is shouting to the entire world, there is hope. There's hope. But even what we face, no matter what we go through, no matter what's happening in our lives, no matter where we are with our level of cartilage in our knees, there is still hope in Jesus. And that first Easter, Jesus proclaimed to the world, "I am the resurrection and the life." I am everything that you need. I am everything. I love this quote from N.T. Wright. It says, Jesus' resurrection is the beginning of God's new project not to snatch people away from earth to heaven but to colonize earth with the life of heaven. Sometimes we get caught up in this Jesus thing of just going, "Okay, when I die, I'm going to heaven. Cool. All that." But Jesus has got work for us to do here and now. Jesus has got people in our lives that need to hear this message of hope that have never heard this hope. So story ever in their lives. They're just racing through life, counting down the days going, "This is the end." And Jesus here is proclaiming, "This is not the end," that He wants more of us. And in the midst of the hardness of our life, Jesus is here. Turn to the person next to you. I hate to admit it, but they're probably the source of the hardness of your life. You love them to death, right? You love them to death. But they add to that hardness. And God wants us to know that heaven is invading now. That even in the midst of that hardness, Jesus is here and now.

Well, he got me with the cartilage in the knee thing. I wasn't expecting that. Wasn't in the notes. I want to take us back. We're going to take some time now to kind of go encounter by encounter, the ones that we just talked about. So I So I want to go back to Mary Magdalene at the grave and talk about the fact that she overcame grief. Grief is something that we experience in the loss of something or someone that we love. And Mary's love for Jesus runs deep because it's wrapped up in her identity of who she is, what she's gone through. Luke 8, 1 through 3 tells of the story of who Mary Magdalene was in her first encounter with Jesus. And she is the prime example of experiencing the transformative work of Jesus in life. She was possessed by demons, and Jesus comes and heals her, casts those demons out. And from that moment on, her life is totally transformed. She goes from a possessed life to a life of freedom in Jesus, and goes to supporting Jesus' ministry and being a part of it. So the death of Jesus meant the death of the one person in her life who was able to and had the power to transform her. So why did Mary grieve? Well, she grieved because she lost her liberator. His power had freed her from darkness. She also lost her teacher. His truth freed her from deception. She lost her purpose. life had given her a direction. Mary grieved because Jesus' death became that identity crisis for her. And this is, we can probably relate to this and to some extent, right? Take an elderly couple or someone who is going through the end-of-life process and that spouse is caring for that person and that's their identity. Is being a part of that marriage through thick and thin, through better or worse? And in that moment, maybe at that end-life stage, you're taking care of that person. So the rest of life shrinks, right? The outings, the social events, friends, all of that may be on the back burner, and your life and your time and your energy and effort are going for caring for that person. When that person passes away, you're left with an identity crisis of who am I now? My life was totally invested in this person. And I've got to rediscover what my purpose is, what I do with my free time. And it can be a lot, it is a lot. And I think that's what Mary's going through here. She's grieving this identity, that person, Jesus, my whole life was formed around him and what he said for me to do. I supported him, I followed him and now that he's gone, I don't know what to do. Mary's grieving that anchor, that person who healed her and gave her a purpose.

Some of us may be in that same kind of grief right now in a grief of darkness. Maybe it's a grief of deception, Lies, you're dealing with lies that are keeping you from experiencing the freedom that is found in Christ. Maybe you're grieving a lack or lost sense of direction in life. You're not sure where you're supposed to be or where you're supposed to go. Or maybe you're grieving the loss of a loved one or in the process of losing a loved one. And Jesus wants to say to you, "Hey, why are you crying? There is more hope than you know of, and that you can feel in this moment. I can not only give you everything, but I can give you more than you've ever had. In this moment, Jesus helped reframe Mary's grief. That she could have hope that Jesus' victory over death meant that she too could experience that victory. John 20, 17 tells us that Mary was holding onto Him, embracing Jesus in this moment. And he says to her, "You can't, you have to let me go. I still have some work to do here, and then I have to go ascend and be with my Father in Heaven." And so, she still has grief, but Jesus reframes her grief. Mary, I think, wanted that life that she had. She wanted to go back to it. She said, "Jesus, you're back? Let's get back into our regular rhythm, our regular schedule. I was hanging out with you every day. Let's go back to that." And Jesus is saying, "It's going to look different now." But the grief that Mary might experience of Jesus leaving to ascend to be with his Father in heaven is different than the grief of seeing the Savior dead on the cross. Right? One situation instills hope. Seeing Jesus alive and ascending to be with the Father, that instills hope. It's still a grief of him not being with us in the day to day, but it's different. Compared to the grief that she experienced where her Savior is on the cross, dead. They say that the grief of losing a loved one never really goes away, but we just get better at coping with it day to day. And Jesus reframed that grief for Mary so that she could have joy and hope in her future as her life went on. And where her identity could still be in the living God, even if he wasn't physically walking with her day by day. Why is death so frustrating for us? It's because we have no power over it. but we can know the one and have relationship with the one who does. This is a story of victory in Jesus over sin and death. The resurrection means hope is possible. So if you are someone who has lost something or someone in life, Jesus wants to say to you, "Hey, why are you crying? I conquered a hopeless grief, but in me there is hope in what lies ahead.”

I don't know about you, but I don't like being scared. I don't like scary movies. I don't like being scared. My daughter is on this kick to try to scare me whenever she can. Dad's tally is above hers right now. But something I do love, which is kinda like on the verge is roller coasters. Anybody love roller coasters? I love roller coasters. There's just something about 'em. Like, I love, give me a, launch me out of somewhere, give me a loop de loop, throw me upside down, whatever. I love it. It's kind of on that verge of like you're doing stuff that you should never do like just with like Just some safety gear that you just trust like okay, but something I do not like whatsoever is ferris wheels I think they are a torture chamber okay, think about this you're sitting in an open cage with just a bar a Bar and you're going up you're like I'm gonna die. I'm gonna die. I'm gonna die. I'm gonna die I'm gonna die and then you look down and the guy who put it together just with no teeth smiles up at you and just Waves and says I'm torturing you right now, and he is loving it. I don't like being scared I don't do not put me in a ferris wheel. I'm sorry. I'm out Give me something with a loop-de-loop, but but don't even think about that But then I think about bungee jumping This is just a weird thing. Do you know they have to replace those cords? I Want to know the guy who's counting who's just like one jump okay, two jumps and then who's the last person who takes that bungee then they come back and say and That was a little sketchy there. We need to replace that bunch I'm like, how does this work who's counting this and who's keeping track of this because there is a point where that bungee is going to break and You don't want to be I want to be the guy in the middle like the guy who like has tested it already but it's still got like 500 jumps to go. Like that is where I want to be if I was to ever do bungee jumping. I don't think I will. I don't have a scare of heights or anything like that.

But when I think about what happened with the disciples, the disciples had to overcome fear. We talked about this earlier when we read. They were scared to death. They were afraid that they were going to be killed by association. We read that story sometimes. I think we get pulled out of context of what's really happening. We think, "Oh, "Oh, disciples, don't you know Jesus risen from the grave? Like, why are you such wusses? Like, why don't you just, like, rise up under the power of Jesus and just go and live your life?" But the reality was they didn't understand. They didn't get it. And Jesus shows up in their lives and removes that fear. He removes that fear. And I think Jesus, he wants to do that for us. He wants to do that in our lives to remove the fear of what we might be facing or what we're going through. We went through a season these last few years of just chaos. Of what we thought would never happen, happened. Right? I remember being on the phone just before the NCAA tournament with my brother-in-law. And it was just before the world shut down. And I was thinking, there's no way they're going to shut down the tournament. There's too much money involved in this pooling and the bets and the brackets and all. There's no way you're gonna do that. And when they shut that down, I knew something was real. There was something big that was happening. And here what happened, something big is happening in the lives of the disciples and Jesus shows up. Even in the midst of them in their fear, it wasn't like they had gotten to a place where they were like, okay, well, I'm not so scared anymore and then Jesus just kind of rolls in.

Jesus shows up in the midst of their fear and their anxiety and everything that they're walking through in that moment and he says what? "Peace be with you." Peace be with you. Alexander McLaren has this quote on peace that says, "Peace comes not from the absence of trouble but from the presence of God." Peace comes from the presence of God. There's a key word in there what Jesus says, right? He says, "Peace be with you." Peace be with you. I think there's two factors in this peace. The first factor is power. When we're afraid, we don't feel adequately defended, right? When we're in a place of vulnerability, even the smallest noise or something, creak, crack, Snap, pop, whatever can give us, put us on edge. But if we knew we were locked in a fortress with an army of thousands surrounding us and guarding us and keeping us safe, and even if we had an army coming at us, we would feel peace because why? Because we were safe. There was a power over whatever we were facing in our lives. The second of this with our peace is proximity. Sometimes we're alone. That's just part of life. Sometimes we're alone. Even sometimes when we're surrounded by people around us, we still feel alone. And God here is saying, "I am with you." You're not alone. I have the power to defend you, to be near you, and to put together this power and proximity on a whole new level that the world has never experienced. that nobody else has understood or gone through. Some of you do not have peace because you don't think that God loves you enough to defend you. And I want to tell you again, that first Easter, he showed up and said, "I love you in a whole new way." Acts 4, 13 says this, "When they saw the courage of Peter and John, and they realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished. And they looked and took note that these men had been with Jesus. Ordinary, blue collar, run of the mill guys were the disciples. These weren't some amazing, educated, higher up, political figure, CEO, Fortune 500. These were your everyday guys. But they had been with Jesus. And that changes everything. See, the resurrection means today that courage is available. We can't get rid of our troubles. It's part of life. But what you can get is the power and presence of Jesus that He gives us.

Our last encounter is that person who had missed out on that original presence of Jesus with the disciples. Talking about Thomas. You know, the Bible in both the Old Testament and the New Testament uses a lot of wordplay to convey some important ideas. One of those is nicknames. They give nicknames for something that happened, either good or bad, in that person's life. And sometimes that person is renamed to signify that moment, whatever they had done. I don't know. Survey here, who has had a nickname in life? Raise your hand. How many of you liked your nickname? A couple hands down. Yeah. Yeah. Well, sometimes nicknames were given. Yeah, I don't know. I never liked my nickname. My first name is Andre. That doesn't really flow into anything. Just nothing ever came of that. My last name's Yowakovsky. Just try. Just try to come up with a nickname. It never happened. So I just always wanted one. It never happened. I still crave for that today. So if you feel free on it, yeah on it. Yeah, but I got it. I got a pass, you know, you can't like start it without me approving it. Just nicknames can be cool and in the Bible. They're pretty cool. Use most of the time those nicknames in the Bible are for something good that person did like Peter Peter walks into the room. His name is Simon and the Bible helps us by saying Simon Peter because originally it was Simon and Jesus doesn't even shake his hand or sailors. She says you have the wrong name. You are now the rock. It's like, Dwayne Johnson is not the original rock. Peter is like the, yeah, the original rock. - It wasn't 'cause he sunk in the water in the storm? - Well, even if it was, it's just he's the original rock. Yeah, he renames him. John has some other, John himself, the writer of this gospel also has a nickname. He calls himself the beloved disciple, the one that Jesus loved the most. I just love whatever competitive spirit he had that as he's writing, he's like, I know the other disciples are writing, and I just want to make sure that the whole world knows that I was Jesus' best friend." So every time that he's mentioned, it's always like, "John, the disciple that Jesus loved the most, Jesus' best friend." So he gives himself a nickname, which is like a faux pas. You cannot give yourself a nickname. The other person in this gospel to have a nickname is Thomas. Maybe some of you know, Doubting Thomas. Now, previously what we know of Thomas is we wouldn't have thought of this nickname. in John's Gospel in a situation where Lazarus had died, Jesus' friend, he talks about how he's got to go back. So it happened, he finds out that Lazarus' friend has died, he's like, "Hey, disciples, we need to go back to the village of Bethany, and I got to deal with this situation." And his disciples remind him, "Hey, Jesus, when you left, they wanted to stone you. If you go back, you might get killed." And we find out in John 11:16 that Thomas said to the rest of the disciples, "Let us also go, that we may die with him." So, Thomas originally has got this courage, he's got this faith that he's like, "Hey, I run with Jesus, let's go. If we're gonna die, I'm okay with it."

And we fast forward now to this situation where Jesus has resurrected, and there's some tension going on with Thomas. He had belief in courage to follow Jesus, but now he's in a different place, and that courage has faded, and now there's doubt. And sometimes isn't that the way it goes when you're so invested into something or someone, and then in whatever way you lose it, in order to get reinvested and re-engaged in that thing or that person, doesn't it take sometimes even more energy than the first time around? For whatever reason, you have to invest more, and I think that's what Thomas is dealing with here. He's followed Jesus for years, and now that Jesus is back, he's like, "I don't know. I need a little bit more than I did the first time. I've never seen a resurrected body. I don't know if any of you have. But if I were Thomas, I would be very skeptical. Just hearing about someone who was raised from the dead, I would definitely be in the category of like, I got to see that with my own eyes. I just won't take anyone's word for it. I don't know who they are or where you've been. I want to be able to see and experience with my own eyes, my own, yeah. I gotta do it." So this is very relatable coming from Thomas. So we know the situation where the disciples come to him and say, "Hey, by the way, we know Jesus. Of course you know Jesus, Thomas. By the way, he's back. He's alive again. We all saw him." And Thomas is saying, "What? What are you guys talking about?" Just imagine what Thomas is going through in that moment. I think on top of the doubt that he's feeling of, "Okay, this has never happened before." Well, except it has, Lazarus. So he's just like, "Is that what this is going on?" But maybe he's also feeling hurt, the only one left out of this whole group of disciples who were like, "We were all following Jesus for years, and why was I the only one not to see him?" And just kind of like this emotion that he's dealing with in this moment. So Thomas, mentally and in his heart, just can't get there. He can't get to this point of belief on the disciples' words alone. And he says, "Unless I put my fingers in the hands inside of Jesus, I'm not going to believe." And we know what Jesus does, right? Jesus in life meets us where we're at. We could be struggling, we could be having a great time, but we know that Jesus meets us. He does all the work and he meets us with whatever we're dealing with in life. And so he goes and he meets Thomas where he's at.

So the next time the disciples are together, Jesus shows up and he doesn't rebuke Thomas, but he gives Thomas exactly what he's asking for. He's like, "You wanted to put your hands on my hand and my side. Well, go ahead. "Here's my hands, here's my side." He says, "Stop doubting and believe." And what history tells us of Thomas is a further transformation in his life. Thomas not only believes in that moment, but he goes on to be one of the greatest church planters in church history. He goes over to India, and he starts church after church after church, and he dies a martyr. He dies for his faith in Jesus. And the point that I'm saying here is that God is teaching that we all may have doubts to some degree. We all may have a little bit of Thomas inside of our hearts and in our minds. But when Jesus reveals himself to us, we can go from doubt to belief. Thomas overcame doubt and so can all of us here today. With Jesus' influence, Mary overcomes grief, the disciples overcome fear, and Thomas overcomes doubt. And don't you see the beauty of what John is saying in this chapter, is that it speaks to our deepest needs that we experience in life. We are people who walk with grief. We walk in fear at times. And we can walk through life with nagging doubts going on in our minds and in our hearts. We wrestle with our faith. Maybe it's our friends, our co-workers, even our family members who question our commitment to Christ. Some of you here today may not yet be committed to Christ. And if you're walking in doubt, He wants to say to you this Easter, "Hey, I want to reveal myself and who I am to you. I'm not afraid of your questions." God is saying, "Challenge me." Say, "God, I need to touch you. I need to know that you are real." This is what Thomas did. He got real with God. He said, "Hey, this is what it's going to take for me to believe." And Jesus, knowing his doubt, meets him where he's at. Jesus knows our doubt, and he'll meet you where you're at. But Thomas exemplifies this important part of you have to engage with God. You got to let God know, "God, this is what I'm struggling with. This is the hill that I'm trying to get over, but I can't do it on my own." And once you voice that, let God take care of the rest. Let God meet you where you're at. Thomas said, "I have questions, let me ask them." And God shows us in this moment that He will answer.

Jesus then says to them, in John 20:29, He says, "Because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." So, in the grief, in the fear, in the doubt, whatever you're at, whatever you're going through in life, the question is, what do you believe? Do you believe in this story of Jesus that you can have anything that you're walking through right now overcome through his resurrection? That's the question for us today. Jesus says that you ask and you will receive search and you will find. There are times I've had doubt in my life and God's shown up, God's a big boy. He can take our biggest doubts and he hands them and takes care of them. It's how amazing he is. So the question for us is what do we believe? Do we believe that Jesus can take care of all of this stuff that we might be going through in life? And the fact that he rose that very first Easter Sunday conquered the greatest thing that nobody up to that point had been able to conquer, death. The most final of final things. Jesus took care of that and took care of that for our lives. So I say it would be safe to say that anything that we might be going through in life is probably a little bit less than death. Jesus is already taking care of that. He can take care of whatever we're going through. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet see.

Our context and our view was one of having to walk in faith, because we didn't get to be like Thomas and to touch Jesus and what He was. But Jesus said we can be just as blessed as those who have seen and believed. And it might be even a place where we are even blessed even more because we have not seen and yet believed. So what do you believe? Do you believe that this Jesus and resurrection stuff is real? Do we believe and hold that in faith? Do we believe that God is still working? something years later after his resurrection that God is still working. And he's working in every single person's life that is in this room. And I want you to walk away with that this morning. So whatever your grief, whatever your fear, whatever those doubts, just give them over to God. What's that saying, "Give it over to God, he'll be up all night anyway"? That's the reality. So the question is, are we willing to give it over to God? And to give our lives over to Him? And then say, "Jesus, you've got it all figured out. I don't. Help me figure this thing called life out.”

Let's pray. Jesus, thank you so much for this day, for this Sunday, to worship you, to praise you, to give you honor, the glory for the resurrection that you walked, that life, that very first Easter. Jesus, we're so grateful for you. And God, there might be some of us in here right now that need to step out into faith and to say, "Jesus, I need to trust you. I need to walk in this faith with you. I need to say, 'Here's my grief. Here's my fear. Here's my doubt. Here's my film of grief.’” So God, maybe this Easter would be that day that those would make that commitment to you to say yes to Jesus say yes to the one who overcame death yes to the one who overcame grief yes to the one who overcame fear yes to the one who overcame doubt Jesus I pray that that those who want to make that commitment God would quietly in their hearts right now. Just pray this prayer with them. Jesus, I'm sorry. I'm sorry for holding on to these things. I'm sorry for not giving these over to you soon. God, here is my life now. I bow to you as Lord and leader of my life. Forgive me of my sins. Forgive me of my selfishness. Forgive me of my pride. forgive me of these decisions I've made that have been all about me number one. God, I place you rightly as number one in my life. Jesus, help me to live for you from this day forward, to love you God with everything I have and to love those around me in my life. Our eyes still closed and heads bowed. If you prayed that prayer today, I I asked that you would just take your ripoff card at the bottom of your program. You can just mark that box that said yes I chose Jesus drop that in the bucket on the way out For some of us We need to get God back into the right place in our lives To put him on the throne not us Give him hand over all the things that we're struggling through.

God, we continue praying and the power that we know comes from you, knowing that your son, his victory is our victory. So on this day, Easter, we give you all the praise that we get to share in that victory, doing nothing on our own. We didn't do any part. We get to put our trust and faith in you. We get to look forward to the hope that is in you now as we live our life and also to the eternal hope. Just as Jesus ascended, we too know that for those who believe, we get to ascend and be with God in heaven. So that joy that comes found in you, I pray that we would feel that joy to the max today. That we would continue to celebrate outside of church service, to go about our lives, celebrate with you and in you, God. So give us everything we need, fill us up with your joy, your grace, your love, and may our lives be a light and example to those in our lives of what you've done, the transformative work that you've done in our hearts. We give you all the praise and glory this morning. We pray this in your Son’s name. Amen.

Palm Sunday 2023

The Triumphal Entry - Luke 19:28-44

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

We're excited for today and it's next week. stepping away from our Romans series where we're going through Paul's exposition and explanation of God's plan of salvation. And for a couple of weeks we're going to turn our attention to the story and the life of Jesus, specifically around his death and resurrection. And I think the timing is perfect because what a greater way to have a deeper appreciation for what Jesus has done, what Paul's talking about, than to go back and recount the story all over again. So as has been said, today is Palm Sunday, a day where we recognize the fulfillment of Scripture, that Jesus is sent by God, that the world will resist him, and that the judgment is coming, but that Jesus is King over all. Holy Week starts and it follows the timeline of Jesus, the week before his death on the cross. And so today Palm Sunday marks the day that Jesus entered into Jerusalem for the final time, being hailed as King. And as we'll learn today, what may seem, and mostly is, an extremely joyous occasion is also marked with praises of joy, but also tears of sadness. So today I want to tell the story of Jesus that happened 2,000 something years ago, and walk in His shoes. So if you want to turn in your Bibles with me, we're going to be in Luke. And you have some time, because before we actually read that passage, it's going to be Luke 19. But before that, I just want to kind of catch us up in the story of Jesus and how we got to this point that we'll cover. Again, because we're doing Romans and it's just perfect with the plan of salvation, I thought I'd start at the beginning and just start at Jesus' birth. So, as we know, long ago, Jesus was born, born into a virgin. We celebrate that at Christmas. And at that point, it's recognized by some that he is the Messiah. Some of them. Some people recognize that he is the Messiah. the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy, the one who would come to rule over God's kingdom. We think of Isaiah 9, it says, "Wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of peace.”

And so Jesus is born. And then we have Jesus as a child. We don't know much about Jesus's life before his ministry, but we do get one story. And I love this story. And I think it's significant, which is why it's shared in one of the gospels. And that is when he's around 12 years old. And it's during this week that we're celebrating Passover week. And so him and his family go to Jerusalem to partake in the festivities and the feasts and the parties. And it's not just like what we do today where it'd be like, "Hey, family, pack up in the car and let's go." It was like the whole section of your neighborhood was like, "We're all going." So it was a huge crowd that would journey to Jerusalem. And they do the whole week, the Passover week, and on the way back, the whole contingent again makes their way together back to their home. and they realize after a day that Jesus isn't with them. 12-year-old Jesus is not with Mary and Joseph, and you're thinking like, "How could they not?" We don't know. But don't judge Mary and Joseph. It's crazy back then. Feasts, parties, and a lot of people, and they're like, "Our whole neighborhood's here. We think Jesus is here." But he's not. So they go back to Jerusalem, and they start looking for him. And they're looking for three days. I mean, can you imagine, like your child, and you're like, "I don't know where in this city our child is." where they find him back at the temple, and he's conversing with religious leaders. And everyone around as they walk up to the scene, they see Jesus and all these religious leaders, and everyone is so impressed with 12-year-old Jesus, as he is answering questions, asking deep questions, and seems to have this deep understanding and grip of the law, the Old Testament, and this holy life that they were all talking about.

And so we get this scene where Mary and Joseph walked up, as any distraught parent would, and they said, "Why did you do this to us? Why would you worry us like this?" And Jesus says, "Why were you searching for me? Didn't you know I'd be in my father's house?" Now our daughter is not yet a teenager, but I've done youth ministry for a while now, and this seems very much like a youth kid response. Little sassy, just a little sassy Jesus. He didn't sin, Jesus was perfect, but doesn't mean he couldn't be sassy. He seems like a little like, "Guys, parents, didn't you know this is where I'd be?" And so, we have this encounter and it's great. It shows Jesus being with his heavenly Father at the temple, and it's a great moment there. And then, so we have that, and that's all we kind of know of his birth, his childhood, and then he begins his ministry. We fast forward so many years and he's finally getting into his ministry, the purpose of his incarnation. Before he begins his ministry, he performs a miracle, turning the water into wine at a wedding. Side note, by the way, in the Bible, a lot of important things happen at festivities and parties, and so I just think that we should continue that here at Spring Valley. We should have more parties and feasts. Important things will happen. But during Jesus' ministry, we see that he is baptized by John the Baptist. We see that he's tested in the wilderness by Satan. Satan, he's rejected by his hometown of Nazareth. He calls his disciples, specific people, to come and follow him. He goes on to teach crowds about the kingdom of God, about the scriptures, the Old Testament, teaching them how to live for God. He heals many people, performs many miracles, and deeply changes the lives, both physically and spiritually and emotionally and mentally, of so many people that he comes into contact Jesus also solidifies the future of his ministry through his apprentices and teaches close followers, what you would know to be the twelve apostles, how to carry on after he's gone.

During his ministry he also has run-ins with the religious leaders, most notably the Pharisees, pretty much from the beginning. From his baptism until the end he is having encounters in this tension with the religious leaders. So we see that in his encounter with Nicodemus. Randomly throughout his time teaching, they'll come up to him and try to trap him, try to trick him. They do not like the truth that Jesus is sharing. It's different than their understanding of the law and really is calling them out. And so they just do not like Jesus at all. Throughout Jesus' ministry, Jesus taught his disciples how to live for God. So He's taught them how to pray. He's taught them how to love. He's taught them how to serve other people. They really are apprenticing after Jesus, learning how to live a life, learning Jesus' craft and his lifestyle. And again, most importantly, through this time, he shared about God's kingdom, about belonging not to the kingdoms of the world, but to a heavenly kingdom, Yahweh's kingdom. And he's done this mostly through parables. So the understanding of it is a bit tricky for some. but he's alluded to this kingdom into a time when he will no longer be around. He's talked about his death. And the disciples have not yet fully understood what Jesus is talking about. And so all of this took the span of three years. And now leads to the beginning of the end. And this catches us up to where we're at in Luke 19, to where Jesus will enter into Jerusalem one last time.

So now if you're in your Bibles, Luke 19, starting at verse 28, I'll go ahead and read. It says, "After Jesus had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. And he approached Bethphage and Bethany at the hill called the Mount of Olives, and he sent two of his disciples, saying to them, 'Go to the village ahead of you, and as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, 'Why are you untying it?' say, 'The Lord needs it.' Those who were sent ahead went and found it, just as he had told them. As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, "Why are you untying the colt?" They replied, "The Lord needs it." They brought it to Jesus, threw their cloaks on the colt, and put Jesus on it. As he went along, people spread their cloaks on the road. When he came near the place where the road goes down the mountain olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen. "Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest." Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, "Teacher, rebuke your disciples." "I tell you," He replied, "if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out." As He approached Jerusalem and saw the city, He wept over it and said, "Even you, or if you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace, but now it is hidden from your eyes. The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you, and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another because you did not recognize the time of God's coming to you.

Let me pray. God, thank you for your word. Thank you for your truth. And thank you that we get the opportunity to gather together, to study your word and to understand your kingdom, who you are and what you've done for us. So I just pray through your words, God, that we would be drawn closer to you, have a deeper understanding of today, the significance of it in this week, and as we approach Easter, that we would do so with humility and a deep, deep appreciation for what your Son did on the cross. We pray this in your name. Amen.

So, this story again, Jesus is on the donkey or the colt, and He's entering into Jerusalem, and people are laying down their cloaks, giving him a royal entry. Why? Why is this happening? Well, Israel's ancient prophets promised that one day God himself would arrive and rescue his people and rule the world. And other times the prophets spoke about a coming king who would ride into Jerusalem to bring justice and peace. And so this moment is monumental. In our midweek Bible study covering Daniel, we talked about how God's revelation about future events spoke of dark things and troublesome times. And for Israel, there was hope found in the person of God. In the book of Daniel, it was revealed that God had a plan, that God would be victorious, and for the people, there would be hope to endure such difficult times. And in other prophets like Isaiah, they are referencing specifically the person of Jesus, the Savior, the Messiah, who would rescue the people. And so the anticipation of a Savior has been building, as Pastor Chris said, for so many years. And it could not be higher than this moment, this hundreds of years waiting for the rescuer to come. And this scene triggers in their mind that this is something, we remember this being said. We remember that this is important. They recognize this moment that they've been waiting for. Their King, their Savior is here. So Jesus telling him to go get the donkey so that he could ride into the city. I'm sure he's like, "Oh my goodness, it is happening. Guys, get your clothes. This is happening. He's here. He's riding in our King, our Savior. It's happening." And they're so happy because they think that Jesus is here to implement a Jewish kingdom. I mean, what else would they think, right? They're thinking, "We've been suffering for so long. God told us about a kingdom that we would belong to. The rule that He would have over the world, this is it." They think that He's going to overthrow the Roman Empire. They think that He's going to have a physical throne to sit on. They're thinking of an earthly kingdom. Whereas Jesus has been teaching for years now of a heavenly one. So they're on different pages. Jesus is King, but not going to rule in the way that they expected. And this isn't lost on Jesus as He's riding in. But the people are so excited. They are full of such joy that their king is here. And again, they aren't wrong, they don't realize how they're not exactly right. Jesus is king. He is coming in the name of the Lord. And they should be praising Him. The other gospels say that the crowd is chanting "Hosanna," which means "save us." As their king is riding by, they're joyously praising, like, "Save us! We know what you're going to do. You're going to save us." This is such a joyous occasion for the people. And we see that Jesus not only allows it to happen, but wants it to happen. The Pharisees don't want it to happen. They tell Jesus to tell them to rebuke His disciples, "Hey, don't let this happen." But Jesus says, "Even if they are silent, even if I did rebuke them, the rocks would cry out." That's how much this needs to happen. I am God. The earth knows. The rocks know. I am their Creator. So, the praise of God, of Jesus here, needed to be shouted.

This is a good thing. Everyone seems to be happy except for two parties, the religious leaders and Jesus. The religious leaders, again, are unhappy because they sense that Jesus is this threat to their power. They see Jesus as a threat to their influence and dominion over the people. And this has been an ongoing tension throughout the years of ministry, and it's very present here as he's writing in. Just think of years of these two parties not getting along. And this moment, this monumental moment of Him being praised as King, is pushing them to the edge. And we'll see through the timeline of Holy Week that Jesus and the religious leaders are coming to a point of conflict, to a point of no return. The second party that is unhappy during this triumphal entry is Jesus Himself. We see that in verse 41 as He approaches the city, He weeps. Jesus is distraught. Now why? Why would Jesus, in this glorious moment, be crying, be weeping? I think it's because Jesus knows what is coming. He knows that He won't be accepted as Israel's king when they find out what kind of kingdom He's really talking about. That Israel will keep going down a destructive path, that they will neglect the poor and fail to love others as Jesus has been teaching them. And they're going to cause trouble with their oppressors, and it will lead to death. And Jesus in this moment is referencing what will happen in AD 70, the destruction of the temple. And it breaks him. The temple is a very special place. We know from even as a kid, and he's 12 years old, he's near his father's house. And the destruction of the temple breaks him. And it stirs him up, it riles him. And the next scene in the Bible, which we won't cover this morning, but he'll go to the temple and he'll turn over the tables, he'll get angry because they have turned his father's house into a place of corruption.

Jesus is distraught, because He knows why He has sinned. He knows the sacrifice that He will have to make. He knows that while people now are praising Him, and hailing Him as King, they will also demand His crucifixion. He knows that their cries of hailing Him as King will turn to cries of "Crucify Him!" You know, sometimes as pastors we do this thing where we encourage you to be inside the shoes or look through the perspective of the main character to help you understand, help us understand. And I think this one is just so hard. If I were to say, "Put yourself in Jesus' shoes," I don't, we can't fully grasp what it means to be the creator, the king, God, and to be going down, riding on a donkey, and knowing what is going to happen, and the mix of emotion that he may be feeling of, "This is right, the people should be doing this, but I also know that they're They're going to demand my death. So, there's so much going on within Jesus. Even though it's hard to do that, hopefully that gives us a clearer understanding as to why Jesus may be crying as He's entering the city. So this is the beginning of what we call Holy Week. And again, just a little bit of background information here. Holy Week is also Passover, where the Jews are celebrating how they were liberated from slavery by God and invited into covenant relationship back from Egypt in the book of Exodus. So all the way back in Exodus times, God saved them. And still, every year, they look back and they say, "God, thank you." And this is that time. So Jesus will use Passover language and symbols to help reveal God's plan of salvation. that His coming death and sacrifice are for them, to try and help His disciples understand what must happen. So just as the Israelites celebrate being freed from slavery from their oppressors and invited into covenant relationship with God, today, for those who are saved, we celebrate being freed from the chains and eternal punishment of sin, and also being invited into covenant relationship with God.

So simultaneously we have Passover week, God's miraculous saving of the Israelites, and a reminder of his covenant love and commitment and faithfulness to his people, and we have Holy week. This week that Jesus is being ushered in as king, where he will endure ridicule, rejection, and sacrifice in order to bring salvation to his people. Both are stories of God's covenant faithfulness and redemptive plan at work. So I want to spend the rest of our morning going over some Holy Week reminders to be present in this week and to hopefully help our hearts align with God's heart. So, Holy Week reminders. First Holy Week reminder is do not rush to Easter. I know it's hard. I know Easter candy went on sale a couple months ago after Valentine's Day or before that, and that there's bunnies everywhere and parties, and I know kids in school are having Easter egg hunt, whatever it is. But do not rush to Easter. Each day of this Holy Week holds important reminders for us. The good news of the resurrection is something to rejoice, but we must endure this week just as Jesus did. Today is Palm Sunday where we recognize Christ's triumphal entry, but as we saw Jesus weeping at the end of our passage, we too recognize the pain that Christ must endure before resurrecting. So let me just simply walk through this week in the life of Jesus. Tomorrow, Monday, Holy Monday, is the time where Jesus goes to the temple and expresses His anger towards the religious leaders who have let this holy place where God and humanity meet. The temple is very special, and it became a place of worshiping money and corruption. And expressing this righteous anger, he further upsets the religious leaders. Right? He pushes them. I think we know that Jesus knows what he's doing, so he knows that as he's doing this, he knows their reaction. But that's Monday. Goes to the temple, cleans out the temple, teaches at the temple. Tuesday, he continues to teach at the temple, continues to prepare people for his kingdom, and the tensions continue to rise. And then we get to Wednesday. And this is the day where plans were set in motion to capture and to kill Jesus. And again, just beyond knowing the storyline, we should recognize this week that our lives are a part of this story. This plan of betraying Jesus and going up to the cross, our sins are still at play. Even though it happened 2,000 years ago, what Jesus did on the cross is still relevant to us. So, plans are laid on Wednesday, and Jesus continues to teach. And then we get to Thursday, sometimes called "Mondy Thursday." "Mondy" comes from the Latin "Mondontum," which is English for our word "mandate." And this is the day where Jesus mandated, or told His disciples, to serve and love one another. Now, I know in our custom we usually pay attention to the other things that happen this day, which are also good, like the Last Supper and the washing of feet, and Judas' betrayal and exit from that meal. But the early church came up with this Maundy Thursday, because they wanted to put emphasis on Jesus' command to love and serve one another. And I think they had something right there. I think we should definitely remember and dwell and meditate on Jesus' command to love and serve one another. It's the biggest command that He gives throughout His teaching. And that happens on Thursday. And then Friday, Good Friday, this is the day that we mark the turn in the people. And one of the possible reasons that Jesus was distraught when writing again, when the people's words turn from Hosanna to crucify Him. From standing trial in the early morning to carrying His own cross to the hill that He be crucified on, after being beaten and mocked. to them being crucified, and darkness covering the earth, the earth trembling, the temple curtain being torn in two. This is the darkest day in history. The Son of God, perfect, died on the cross, bearing all of our sin. It's a very solemn day. It's a dark day. And then we come to Holy Saturday. And this is a day where we remember the in-between. We're in between lament and hope. We're in between sorrow and joy, loss and eternal gain, and death and life. We don't want to rush past this day. We want to sit and be present in that in-between. And then of course we come to Sunday, a week from today. We're on that day, we'll get to celebrate that Jesus rose from the grave, where they found the tomb that He was buried to be empty. Holy week and Lent are over, and the resurrection life is now ours to enjoy through Jesus. This is the best and most important day in Christian belief, because it means that Jesus truly is God, and it means for those who believe that we get to be with God for eternity. we too will experience the glorious resurrection and go be with God the Father at the end of our time. And as good as that is, as good as Easter is, don't rush to Easter. Be present each day what happened to Jesus and then consequently what God may be wanting to do with you. So don't rush. The rest of my reminders are really short. That was the longest one. Don't rush to Easter.

Secondly, remember God's covenant, faithfulness and love. The very God that the Israelites were celebrating and worshiping is the same God we worship and celebrate. For Israel, God's covenant faithfulness and love was the reason for their escape from captivity. And for believers today, it's God's covenant faithfulness and love that is the reason why He sent His Son to save us. So from Israel to believers, from escaping captivity to being saved from sin, from redeeming Israel to redeeming us, take joy in remembering God's covenant faithfulness to His people. You are His people and He loves you. Whatever place you're in in life, whether you're at peace and you're just living into God's purpose for you, life is really good right now, or you're in a place where you're just barely hanging on, remember that God covenantally and faithfully loves you. And may it give you hope this week.

Third Holy Week reminder is to ask God to transform you during this Holy Week. As we get closer to the cross, as we get closer to the darkest moment in history, ask God to expose the sins in your life in order to better undergo the transformation that the Spirit is trying to do within you. We see in this week, this Holy Week, that Jesus addresses the corrupt temple system in order that it may be what God intended. We see Jesus continue to teach at the temple, desiring that people would know the truth and would repent and accept Him. And we see Jesus teach and model His disciples to love one another. There's still such deep work going on in this week, in the hearts of people. And so, may we posture our hearts and minds this week to be teachable, to be ready to receive whatever God is wanting to do in us, to go wherever God wants us to go, and to be ready to receive how God wants to change us from within. Ask God to transform you this week.

And then fourth and finally, last reminder, is to recognize Jesus as King. On this Palm Sunday, Jesus was being hailed as King, but knew that the people wouldn't be accepting of Him in a week's time, and He knew that they didn't fully understand what kind of King He was. But we do. So let's recognize Jesus as King of our lives. And this week, pay special attention to your heart and who's operating your heart. Are you giving lip service and saying, "God, yes, you are King. "Yes, you rule in my life." But really, when it comes down to moments, we are calling the shots. Who's in charge of your heart and therefore in charge of everything in your life? Are you with Him? Are you truly following Him? Are you dedicating your life and your time and your energy to be his apprentice and to follow his way of life. Recognize Jesus as your king this week. So those are our four Holy Week reminders, and I hope they are encouraging to you.

Let me wrap this up by saying, this past week I had a conversation with a friend and mentor of mine, and we were just talking about how, as we're getting older in life, we're appreciating tradition more and more. And the tradition of Holy Week is a really rich one. It is so good for us to pause and remember what is happening in this week. It helps us better understand what Jesus went through, what God was doing in His plan to save humanity, and one that instills humility in our hearts. And so our prayer as pastors of SVC is that God would be stirring up in our hearts the desire and motivation to live for Jesus, It's not simply just to hear things on a Sunday and to know truth. It's good to know truth, but better to know the truth and to have your life be changed by it. To have a life of action and obedience, of ongoing transformation that God can use to reach others. So that's our prayer for this Holy Week, that God would take that knowledge of what's happening and put it into our hearts and our lives. The way that we live our life would truly be changed. Be intentional this week in your relationship with God. Let Him transform you. Remember that He is King in your life. Dwell on His covenant faithfulness, and don't rush to Easter too quickly.

Let's pray. God, again, we thank You. We thank You for everything that You have done, that You are doing. You're still at work, God. But this week we pause and look back at one of the biggest weeks in history. And today as we praise Jesus as King, we pray that that would not just be lip service, but that would be an honest reflection of how we feel about Him in our hearts. And throughout this week, God, we pray for your Spirit to continually transform us, to work in us, to bring us closer to you. God, I pray that we would recognize the sin in our life, the areas of our life that need work, and God, that we would willingly bring them and lay them at your feet and say, "God, please change me. Make my heart new. Make it white as snow." And each day as we get closer to the cross, I pray that you would fill us with humility and appreciation and true wonder, and that we would just be overwhelmed and praise you with everything that we have. And this time next week, I pray that we can all gather again with such joy, happiness, and excitement, getting to celebrate that Jesus rose from the grave. Be with us, each and every one of us, wherever we're at this week. We pray this in your son's name, Amen.