Palm Sunday - Sunday, April 2, 2023

I want you to know what God is doing in this passage. I want you to know what God is doing in this passage. I want you to know what God is doing in this passage.

The Lord is my strength and my song. He has become my salvation. Glad songs of salvation are intents of the righteous. The right hand of the Lord does valiantly. The right hand of the Lord exalts. The right hand of the Lord does valiantly. I shall not die, but I shall live and recount the deeds of the Lord. The Lord has disciplined me severely, but he has not given me over to death. Open to me the gates of righteousness that I may enter through them and give thanks to the Lord. This is the gate of the Lord. I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation. The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This is the Lord's doing. It is marvelous in our eyes. The Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.

If you want to join me for the next verses. Save us, we pray, O Lord. O Lord, we pray, give us success. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. We bless you from the house of the Lord. God is God, and he has made shine upon us. Bind the festal sacrifice with cords up to the horns of the altar. You are my God, and I will give thanks to you. You are my God, and I will extol you. O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever. This is the word of the Lord. Let's pray. God, we thank you so much that we're able to gather here today, and we're able to celebrate Palm Sunday together, and to be able to read the words of the Old Testament

that are repeated later on by those who greet Jesus, and just with the same joy and the same excitement, that your steadfast love endures forever, and we thank you so much for the promises in those words. Help us today as we worship you, and allow this service to glorify you. In Jesus' name. Amen. All right. We're going to be singing together Hosanna, and there's going to be a stampede of children walking around with palm branches. Feel free to join them if you want, or not. Just watch, and it's fun. Let's go. Stirring hearts are yearning for you. We long for you. 'Cause when we see you, we find strength to faith.

And presence without fears are washed away, washed away. Hosanna. Hosanna. You are the God who sings our praises. Hear the sound of hearts reading to you. We turn to you. In your key broken love made you. In you, you make all things new. 'Cause when we see you, we find strength to face the day. And presents, all our fears are washed away. Hosanna, Hosanna. You are the God who saves us. We're worthy of all our best. Hosanna, Hosanna. You have your way among us. We welcome you here, Lord Jesus. Good job. We only lost one shoe. Nobody got their eyes turned down.

What God could remember no wrongs we had done. Our mowing comes thrown into the sea with our bottom of shore. Our sins, they are many. His mercy is more. Praise the Lord. His mercy is more. The darkness in every morn. Our sins, they are serious more. What patience would wait as we constantly roll. The Father is calling us home. He welcomes the weakest, the vilest, the poor. Our sins, they are many. His mercy is more. Praise the Lord. His mercy is more. Stronger than darkness, new every morn. Our sins, they are many. His mercy is more. What riches of kindness He lavished on us. His blood was the payment, His life was the cost. We stood in the morning of death, we could never afford. Our sins, they are many. His mercy is more. Praise the Lord. His mercy is more.

Stronger than darkness, new every morn. Our sins, they are many. His mercy is more. Stronger than darkness, new every morn. Our sins, they are many. His mercy is more. Our sins, they are many. His mercy is more. All right, you may be seated. Let's pray. Let's pray. Let's pray.

As we prepare for communion this morning, we are going to sing Your Great Name. And along with that, if you haven't had a chance to pick up communion elements and you would like to, they are on the table right as you come in. So let's go ahead and sing together. Lost are saved, find their way at the sound of your great name. All condemned, feel no at the sound of your great name. Every fear has no place at the sound of your great name. The enemy, he has to leave at the sound of your great name. Jesus, worthy is the Lamb that was slain for us. Son of God and man, who are high and lifted up. Let all the world will praise your great name. All the weak find their strength at the sound of your great name. Hungry souls receive praise at the sound of your great name.

The fatherless, they find their rest at the sound of your great name. Sick are healed, and the dead are raised at the sound of your great name. Jesus, worthy is the Lamb that was laid for us. Son of God and man, who are high and lifted. Then all the world will praise your great name. Redeemer, my hidden Lord Almighty. My Savior, Defender, you are my King. Redeemer, my hidden Lord Almighty. My Savior, Defender, you are my King. Jesus is the Lamb that was slain for us. Son of God and man, who are high and lifted up. That all the world will praise your great name. Your great name. Your great name.

In John the 12th chapter, right after Jesus has triumphantly entered Jerusalem, it's written beginning in verse 20. Now among some of those who went up to worship at the feast, that's the feast of Passover, there were some Greeks. And those are people who are not Jewish, maybe they're God-fearers, which is a name for those who worship the God of Israel, but are not. They're not proselytes following Jewish religion. They're a son of Philip, and likely they come to Philip because his name is Greek, who is from Bethsaida in Galilee. And they asked him, "Sir, we wish to see Jesus." And then Philip went and told Andrew, and Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. And what's remarkable about Philip and Andrew is they both have this gospel track record of bringing people to Jesus. In fact, in John chapter 1, one of the first people you see bringing somebody to Jesus is Philip.

We don't find them mentioned often in the Gospels, but when we do, they are consistently bringing people to Jesus. In fact, when Jesus is getting ready to feed the 5,000, and he will actually ask Philip, "How much is it going to cost?" And Philip begins to do the math, carry the wand, times it by 5,000. And he's like, "I don't know." And Andrew goes, "Hey, we've got a boy over here with a lunch." And he brings this little boy to Jesus. But they don't just do this in the Gospels. As we look at the historical record about Philip and Andrew, they will proclaim the goodness of Jesus and seek to bring people to him until they take their last breath. These are two of Jesus' disciples whose historical and biblical track record is proclaiming Jesus.

And as we come this morning to partake of this bread and this cup, one of the things that we say almost every Sunday in 1 Corinthians 15, for as often as we eat this bread and drink this cup, remember what it says? We proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. You see, Jesus has called not just Philip and Andrew to be proclaimers of the good news, but he has called you and I to proclaim the good news. And in order to proclaim the good news, we first must understand it, we must bring it into our heart, and we must be reminded of it. And Paul, when he's talking to the Corinthian church about the Lord's Supper, and how in general they are not doing things very well, one of the things that he will say to them is that when you sit down to eat this meal, to remember Jesus, to proclaim the good news of the gospel,

he'll say something very simple. He'll say, "We are to examine ourselves." And so this morning I would call you to examine your heart, examine who it is that our lives are proclaiming, because a lot of times we're really good at proclaiming ourselves, or proclaiming our ideas, or proclaiming our opinions, or proclaiming our agenda. And maybe what we need this morning is to repent of proclaiming all of those other things, and to proclaim Jesus. We also see this as Philip goes to Andrew, and Andrew and Philip go to Jesus. We have this invitation to come and see Jesus, and Jesus will say to these many, the Greeks are accompanying them as well. He says, "I'm about to be lifted up, and everybody is going to see me. Not just those who are close to Jerusalem, but

everyone will come and see me." And he will say this, "If anyone serves me, he must follow me. For where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father and I will honor him." And the message to these Greeks, they come seeking to see Jesus, and they likely get to, the message is that it won't just be for you, but it will be for the whole world. And so this meal is a proclamation, this meal is a moment of repentance, and this meal is an invitation to see Jesus. And I don't know where we all are in this moment, but in our weakness, we can see the strength of our Savior. In our fear, we can see the courage, and take courage in what Jesus has done. And in our hopelessness, we can find hope, and in our loss,

we can find comfort. And I want you this morning to see Jesus, the one who goes before us, the one who leads us, the one who dies for us, the one who rises again and gives us his victory. In this moment, I want us to see Jesus. So if you would, pray with me before we partake. Father in heaven, I thank you for the good news of the gospel. I thank you for these examples of faithful proclamation that you have given us. Help us to, as we eat this bread and drink this cup, to remember what it is that we hope in, who it is we follow, where it is we walk, and may we be proclaimers of the good news. May we repent of those things where we have lifted ourselves up more than you, where we have

chased after something else than you, and may you draw us to yourself and to see your goodness and your grace, that you would comfort the broken hearts, that you would strengthen those who are struggling to stand, that you would give courage to the fearful, and that you would help us to see your grace. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So if you would, take the bread with me as Jesus gives it to his disciples and tells them, "This is my body, which is for you," and then he calls us to remember him. And if you would also take the cup with me, as Jesus will say to the disciples, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me." And let's remember this as well, for as often as you and I eat this bread and drink this cup,

we proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. Before we pray and dive into our time this morning, I want to read to you from Matthew, the 21st chapter, and to hear this account of the triumphal entry, and just to remind you, this morning we're going to be kind of jumping around Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John to see this event that is occurring and to remind you that each Gospel writer, as they write, it's like looking at a photo album. So if we all gather to see something amazing and we all take a picture of those things, one of the things that's going to be interesting is we're going to see how one person might focus on this and one person might see it in this way, and in the Gospels we have this remarkable privilege of seeing these sort of different pictures of Jesus in the midst of the same event.

In fact, in all of the Gospels there are only ten events in the life of Jesus that are recorded in all of the Gospels, and this is the third of them. The rest of them come after this. And so I'm going to read from Matthew's account, and then we will spend some time together considering what is happening here. So beginning in verse 1, "Now when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, 'Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me.' And if anyone says anything to you, you shall say, 'The Lord needs them,' then he will send them at once.' This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying, 'Say to the daughter of Zion,

'Behold, your king is coming to you, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, on the foal of a beast of burden.' The disciples went and did as Jesus directed. They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them. And most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the tree and spread them on the road. And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, 'Hosanna to the son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!' And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, 'Who is this?' And the crowd said, 'This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee.' This is the word of the Lord.

And there is so many wonderful things in this event and in the things that surround this event. One that was just brought up to me this morning, one of the reasons likely commentators say that they bring the foal of the colt, so the colt is what Jesus will ride into Jerusalem, likely never been ridden before, and as my brother mentioned this morning, this might be the first biblical rodeo that you see in all of Scripture. So we're going to pray and dive into it this morning. Father in heaven, we thank you for Jesus. We thank you for grace. We thank you for this moment where you clearly declare kingship. Help us to see what kind of king that you have sent to us. Help us to see humility and to love and to be drawn near to you.

It is in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. And so it's very easy, at least for me, to come to Palm Sunday thinking we've sort of all got this figured out. And probably most of us, in terms of the facts of the events that are recorded in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, most of us probably do have this all figured out, right? Jesus is going to grab some guy's donkey and the colt of the donkey, and he's going to ride into town. Everybody's going to be excited. There's going to be palm branches. They're going to be quoting from the 118th Psalm. There's going to be some controversy. Jesus is going to come in, check out what's happening in town, go back to Bethany that night, and we can close in prayer and be done with this.

It's very easy to come to these sort of very well-known and frequently talked about accounts in the life of Jesus and begin to take them for granted, to not really see any more than the facts that are recorded. It's easy for us to say, "Hey, I know it's going to happen. I don't need to hear the rest of this story." And so we come to this this morning, and this is a text that I've sort of struggled with because it's very easy for me to say, "Well, I've heard these facts a million times since I was a little kid. We've heard about the palms. We've heard about the singing. We've heard about the Psalms. But I want us to, this morning, not focus on the facts of the event, but rather what Jesus is accomplishing in these facts."

Because what we have here is Jesus doing something, I think, that is unexpected. And as we began to read this morning, when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, Jesus, during this last week of his life, is going to stay in the town of Bethany, likely with Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, and the disciples. And every day, he's going to walk down from the top of this mountain down to Jerusalem. It wasn't a very long walk and spend time in Jerusalem. And so as he is walking from Bethany to Jerusalem, there's going to be a little town partway in between, and he's going to send his disciples through to pick up this mama donkey and the baby donkey. And likely, this person is a follower of Jesus, because Jesus will tell you, say, "The Lord has need of it."

They know who the Lord is, and so they will release it and have no problems. The disciples aren't just simply going into the middle of this and stealing some guy's livestock. And so from Bethpage down the Mount of Olives, Jesus will ride on the donkey. And for us, that's sort of a normal thing that happens during the triumphal entry on Palm Sunday. But this is a remarkable change from how Jesus, this far, has lived his life, right? Something has dramatically changed in this moment, because everywhere else we see Jesus, with the exception of the time he crosses the Sea of Galilee back and forth with his fishermen friends, he has been on foot. He has been to Jerusalem before now, and he's always walked. He's walked down the mountain into Jerusalem, walked out of Jerusalem, up the mountain, everywhere he has gone.

For the last three years, Jesus has walked, and then all of a sudden, on this particular Sunday, as they're walking to Jerusalem, something changes, and Jesus says, "Go get me something to ride on." The other thing that is so remarkable about this is that for most of his ministry, Jesus has avoided sort of these big public displays of excitement. So for example, in John chapter 6, after he feeds the 5,000, and the crowds begin to look at Jesus, and they say, "You know what? This guy can heal the sick. He can feed us. He would make a great king." When Jesus sees that they want to make him a king, he immediately heads into the mountains and leaves them all behind. But now here are people who are treating him as a king, and Jesus doesn't just accept it,

but you will find him encouraging it and defending it. And the next day in the temple, as all the little kids are running around recreating what happened the day before, and the Pharisees go, "Tell them to be quiet." Jesus goes, "They're not wrong. Let me show you the Bible. Out of the mouths of infants and babies, you have ordained praise." And so Jesus has gone from quietness and walking to now writing and accepting and encouraging this kind of public praise. But more than that, throughout His ministry, when Jesus comes to heal people, oftentimes He sort of tells them, "Don't make a big deal about this. Don't talk about this. Don't tell everybody about this." Because Jesus, at that point in His ministry, is not seeking sort of this acclimation. What He is seeking is to simply do good, to share the gospel, to teach His disciples.

But now, He will be in Jerusalem, likely on Monday. All the sick people in Jerusalem come, and Jesus heals them all, in full view of everybody. You see, something has changed in the ministry of Jesus. You see, what Jesus is doing here, is He is publicly proclaiming Himself. And the reason for this is because Jesus' ministry is about to change. In Luke chapter 9 and verse 21 and 22, the crowds are around, and He will encourage the disciples not to say what happened to the Mount of Transfiguration. And here's the reason why they weren't to proclaim. The Son of Man must suffer many things, be rejected by the elders, and the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and on the third day... Jesus comes down off the Mount of Transfiguration with those three disciples.

He tells them that this is not necessarily the time to talk about this, because there is a time coming when He will be arrested and He will be killed. And what Jesus is saying, by publicly riding into Jerusalem, by accepting the praise of the crowd, by healing in public, by defending to the religious leaders that this is the right thing to do, it means that this time is now. Luke chapter 9, the Son of Man must suffer many things, be rejected by the elders, and the chief priests of scribes, and be killed, and on the third day rise again. What Jesus is doing as He accepts all of these things is we are seeing that the time for Him to save mankind is now. And what He is doing in this moment is He is proclaiming salvation.

He is saying, "I am coming here to save." Right? As prophesied in Genesis 3:15, to crush the head of the serpent, as promised to Abraham, "Through you all the nations of the earth will be blessed," to sit on the throne of David as Isaiah and Jeremiah and the prophets point to me, "I am here to save." And here's the remarkable things. The crowd looks at this, and they want salvation. In Matthew 21:9, it says, "It's the crowds that went before and after Him and followed Him." So Jesus, as He comes in, He has crowds in front of Him, crowds behind Him. We learn from one of the other Gospels that people are coming out of Jerusalem to join the crowds. This is a massive moment. Here is what they are singing, saying, and what we said and sang this morning.

"Hosanna to the Son of David. Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest." Now, the word "Hosanna" is not just a word of praise. So, for example, "Hallelujah" is a combination of two Hebrew words that mean "praise God." And so often we use "Hosanna" in the same way. We say, "Hosanna," meaning to praise God. That's not what the word means. It comes from two Hebrew words that mean, "I'm begging you to save me." So these crowds, as Jesus comes into Jerusalem, yes, they're praising Jesus, but they're praising Him by saying, "You are our only hope. You are our salvation. Lord, save us." And so Jesus comes to save, and the crowds are calling for Him to save them. The problem is, is at the heart of this issue, there's two very different ideas of salvation.

The crowds want a political salvation. They want their rulers overthrown, and the taxes taken away, and the temple reformed from all of its corruption, and Jesus comes to save their eternal soul, not just to make their physical existence a little bit better. And what you find is that so often we have a different idea of salvation. And that might be a maturity issue. And I was thinking about this, if you asked my kids, one of their favorite places to eat in the world, they'd be like, "Domino's! We love Domino's!" Now, if you ask me what my favorite place to eat is, it's not going to be Domino's, and if you're looking at the reviews online, it's probably going to have a few more dollar signs than Domino's does, right? We have different ideas of what is best.

And this crowd has one idea of what is best, and Jesus has the truth of what is really best. And what I love about the accounts as we see the salvation that God has brought to us, God doesn't give us what we want, He gives us what we need. Isn't that so much better? Because so many times the thing that I desperately want in my heart of hearts is absolutely the wrong thing. And the thing that I want least of all so many times is exactly what I need. And Jesus in His love doesn't just go, "I'm going to quiet them down by giving them something to make them be quiet, to make them shut up." Jesus shows up and goes, "I'm going to give them exactly what they need. I'm going to save their souls, the brokenness they've been running from and hiding from and making excuses.

I'm going to take that into myself, and I am going to save these people." I want you not just to see that Jesus proclaims salvation in these moments. I want you to see how Jesus goes about doing it. So as Jesus proclaims salvation, He's going to proclaim it in a way that for all of us, that for all of these different groups is understandable and addresses their true need. So this crowd is not a big unified crowd in terms of who they are. What we find from the Gospels is that there are some people who, like these Greeks we talked about a few minutes ago, are kind of outsiders. Likely there's foreigners there. There's going to be some common everyday Jewish people that are there, and they've known about Jesus, they're celebrating Jesus, they're here to see Jesus.

There's going to be Jesus' disciples and followers, probably a large group at this point, and there's going to be people who oppose Him. And so you have this diverse group of people that have gathered, and Jesus is going to see each of their needs, and He's going to seek to proclaim salvation to them in a way that is understandable. And the first way He does it, in the most general way, is that He announces the King is here by showing up on the back of an animal, riding into a city in the midst of cheering, celebrating crowds. Luke will say this, "They brought this colt to Jesus, throwing their cloaks on it, they set Jesus upon it, and as He rode along, they spread their cloaks on the road." Now, to any Greek or to any Roman, and likely to many Jewish people,

this is a picture of a king entering a city. The reason they're throwing their cloaks on the road is so that the hooves of the animal the king is riding don't have to touch the common dirt. And so here Jesus comes and communicates unmistakably that He is a king. Now, to some of the Jewish people who are there, this would be even more deeply significant. Because Jesus is not coming as a Roman king or as a Greek conqueror on a war horse with His army marching before Him and after Him with their chariots and their displays of plunder from battle, but Jesus comes on a donkey. And this is remarkable, and it communicates to Jesus' Jewish audience because Jewish kings generally did not ride war horses. They rode donkeys or they rode mules. In fact, one of the remarkable connections to the Old Testament from this passage is when David is about to die

and he has promised that his son Solomon would sit on the throne as David is on his deathbed, and there's murmurings that one of David's other sons is going to proclaim himself to be king. Do you know what David does? He gets his mule or his donkey. He sends his employees to do so, his subjects to do that. And they place Solomon on the back of the mule or the donkey, and then they walk him through Jerusalem, proclaiming, "This is the king!" And the crowds gather, and you know what they do? They go, "Long live the king!" And here, in this account, you have another son of David, seated on an animal, coming into Jerusalem, being proclaimed by the crowds that this is the king. If you are Jewish watching this happen, they have mistakably a copy of what David did with Solomon. And so, to the foreigners, the Greeks,

and the Romans that see this, they say, "The king is coming." To the Jews that are seeing this, they say, "The king is coming." And just in case there's any doubt, Matthew points us to Zechariah 9:9 about, "Your king is coming, seated on the colt, or the foal of a donkey." It's clear Jesus is proclaiming Himself to be king, not just through His actions, but through His fulfillment of prophecy. And then, Jesus will, dealing with those who seek to oppose Him, will be really, really direct about it. In Luke chapter 19, we find this: "Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Him, Teacher, rebuke your disciples." And He answered, "I tell you, if these, speaking about the crowds, were silent, the very stones would cry out." And what Jesus is doing there is referencing several psalms

that talk about how creation cries out in worship to God, and here comes the enemy that goes, "Jesus, we understand the message that You're sending, that You are the king, and that You're coming into this city as the picture of the Son of David in fulfillment of Messianic prophecy." Stop it! And Jesus will just simply look at them and very clearly state, "If they don't sing, the rocks will." And can you imagine what kind of situation that would have put the Pharisees in if the crowd stopped singing, and the very stones doing it removed every doubt in every person's mind. And I imagine the Pharisees just simply say, "Well, you know, let the crowd sing, because we don't want that to happen." You see, Jesus, even to his enemies, is declaring his supremacy, not just as a king, but as a king over all creation. And so Jesus,

as he proclaims his kingship, it's interesting, he doesn't just speak in ways that people understand, he speaks in how they need. Right? To the Jews and the Romans, he speaks very generally in a picture that they will understand. To the Jews, he speaks clearly, calling on prophecy. And to the Pharisees, with their hard hearts that need to be broken and plowed up to see the goodness of God, Jesus speaks and declares to them a little bit harder. Have you ever seen one of those things with a fire extinguisher or a fire alarm that says, "In case of emergency, break glass." What Jesus is doing when he confronts the Pharisees in this manner. He's not just being rude. He's not trying to score points by winning an argument with them. What he is doing is seeking to break the hardness of their heart so that they can

see the goodness of God. And I want you to see the depth of this salvation. Not just that Jesus proclaims it. Jesus proclaims it in an understandable manner. But listen to Luke 19. And when he drew near and saw the city, and so the way that this geography is laid out is Jesus is coming down the Mount of Olives. All of Jerusalem would have been spread out before him. And in the midst of these cheering crowds, in the midst of his victory over the Pharisees, by quieting them, by pointing to his deity, he looks out across this city and he'll say this, "He wept over it." And that's not just sort of the emotional feeling or a tear going down your cheek. This is a picture of Jesus sobbing over the city of Jerusalem. And he will say this with tears flowing down his face, "Would

that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace." But they're hidden from your eyes. And they're not hidden because Jesus is clearly declaring them. They're hidden because the hardness of their hearts. Not because God isn't showing them, but because they refuse to see it. And Jesus said, "If you would open your eyes and see the things that make for peace, because as judgment the days will come upon you, when your enemies set up a barricade around you and surround you on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children with you, and they will not leave one stone upon another in you because you did not know the time of your visitation." And this is such a startling contrast because think about the crowds. They are joyful in celebrating their

Savior. I imagine the disciples are walking with their heads up in kind of a strut in their steps because Jesus is finally doing what they wanted Him to do. The Pharisees are angry and watching from the sidelines, and here is Jesus in contrast to all of them, with tears running down His face, crying over the hard-hearted rejection of Him by the city of Jerusalem. Jesus weeps, and Jesus sees that for the majority, this moment is just an experience to be had, not a life to be transformed. They are curious, but they won't dig any further. They are upset, but they won't dig any further or any deeper to see the truth. And in this, here's what we see: the love of Jesus. Here comes the King, riding down the Mount of Olives into Jerusalem. Here comes the King,

and He comes, not to rule, but to be ruled over by His enemies. Not to beat and attack His adversaries, but to be beaten and attacked by His adversaries. Not to ascend to a throne, but to be lift cross. And He loves and He saves by giving His life. As He goes down this very mountain, surrounded by cheers, the very mountain that Thursday night He will weep and sweat drops of blood in a garden on this very same mountain, overlooking this very same city. And it's on this mountain surrounded by cheers that you will hear the soldiers' boots as they come to take Him away and to arrest Him. And the thing that is remarkable about this is that Jesus declares He is King. He does it in a way that is understandable. And He does it not to prove that He is right,

but because He deeply loves those. And what I love about this, and that is so remarkable, is that often times when you and I hear about the love of Jesus, we simply think maybe that's not for me. Maybe Jesus can't love me. Let me read to you the verses that happened before the triumphal entry in the Gospel of John. When a large crowd of Jews learned that Jesus was in Bethany before He comes down the mountain, they came not only on account of Him, but also to see Lazarus. And so they are coming to see Lazarus, who Jesus has just raised in John chapter 11 from the dead. And so they hear Jesus is back in Bethany, Lazarus is there who's been raised from the dead. Let's all go see Jesus, and let's all go see Lazarus,

the proof that Jesus can raise people from the dead. Now look at the religious leaders. So the chief priest made a plan to put Lazarus to death as well. Because on account of him, many Jews were going away and believing in Jesus. And the religious leaders, according to that verse, they're going to kill Jesus, and as well, they're seeking to kill Lazarus. And so here is this deep, abiding, evil plot. We're not just going to kill Jesus, we're going to kill this guy that Jesus saved. And as Jesus comes down the mountain, these are the people that surround him, and tell him the crowds are to be quiet, and that Jesus seeks to break up the hardness of their heart by pointing them to who he is and what he does. And he's not just going to do it now, but the next day as they

beseech him with questions, as he cleanses the temple, this is Jesus reaching out to those hard-hearted religious people, showing them that there is hope. And I want you to see that even those who are his enemies, even those that plot to kill him, Jesus loves, and that Jesus weeps over. The Apostle Paul says it this way, "The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came in to save sinners whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me that is the foremost, Christ Jesus might display his perfect patience as an example to those who are to believe in him for eternal life." And what the Apostle Paul says is, "If you think that Jesus doesn't love you, one of the reasons that he saved me, the

Apostle Paul, is so that you could be assured that Jesus loves even his enemies. Those tears Jesus weeps as he comes down the mountain, they are not just for these crowds who are so caught up in the excitement and have never gone beyond curiosity. These tears are for the religious leaders who are actively seeking to kill him and his friends. You are not beyond the love of Jesus." So the question is, how will you receive Jesus? You see, Jesus welcomes you. He is excited to see us. You see it as he welcomes the children the very next day, as the Pharisees accuse him and tell him to silence the children, he will say, "Out of the mouths of babies you have ordained praise." Jesus will welcome you. And the next day in the temple, Jesus will. In the brokenness of your life, in those hurts, those sorrows,

the remnant of unforgiveness that is turned into bitterness, Jesus can heal your heart and he can restore your soul. And Jesus might come in and cleanse the temple. The third thing he does on Monday is he comes in and knocks over all those that are looking for something else. And he says, "You've missed the point." I want you to see that Jesus loves you. He welcomes you. He heals you. And when necessary, even if it's difficult and even if it hurts, he will correct us. And this is not just a call for those who are outside of Christianity. It's a call for those of us who are inside of Christianity. Those of us who have gotten our priorities shifted and are chasing something else and worshiping something else and focusing on something else, Jesus is calling to you and I as well, saying, "Come to me. Let me heal the depths of your soul."

All of those things that you're chasing to try to find completeness in, they won't satisfy you. And maybe Jesus is even coming to call us to repentance by cleansing our temple as he comes in and turns over our life that we would see that our only hope is in him. Would you pray with me? Father in heaven, thank you for calling us to yourself, for inviting us into your family, for pursuing us even though we were your enemies. Help us to see your heart for the lost and that we would have the same heart. That we would weep over those who have not seen your goodness and your kingship. And that in our lives you would help us to trust you and to follow you as our king. We thank you that you welcome us, we thank you that you heal us, and we thank you that you correct us. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. We're going to stand and sing "This is Amazing Grace."

Who breaks the power of sin and darkness? Whose love is mighty and so much stronger? The King of glory, the King above all kings. Who shakes the whole earth with holy thunder? Who leaves us breathless in oar and wonder? The King of glory, the King above all kings. This is an ace. This is unfailing love. That you would take my place and my cross. You would lay down your life. That I would be set free. Jesus, I sing for all that you've done for me. Who brings our chaos back into order? Who makes the orphan a son and daughter? The King of glory, the King above all kings. Who rules the nations with truth and justice. Shines like the sun in all of its brilliance. The glory, the King above all kings. This is amazing grace. This is unfailing love.

That you would take my place. That you would bear my cross. You would lay down your life. That I would be set free. Jesus, I sing for all that you've done for me. Worthy is the lamb who was slain. Worthy is the king who conquered the grave. Worthy is the lamb who was slain. Worthy is the king who conquered the grave. This is amazing grace. Failing love. That you would take. That you would bear my cross. You would lay down your life. That I would be set free. Jesus, I sing for all that you've done for me. Thank you for your announcements as we get ready to close. First of all, there is no Wednesday evening Bible study this week. We have events on Thursday and Friday, so I would invite you to join us for those as well.

First of all, Thursday night, we have our Passover meal. It's been a few years since we have done this. Passover, in the Old Testament, you find it's about remembering the promises of God, four promises specifically that God will bring us out. that God will deliver, that God will redeem you, and that God will bring you to be His people. And so we are going to gather. And the wonderful thing about Passover is not just that we're remembering these promises, but you're remembering these promises in a touch that you can feel, that you can taste. And so sort of it's a lot different from any other kind of thing that we've done, and I don't think we've done it since 2019, since before COVID. I encourage you to join us. It's at 6 p.m. is when we're going to begin. It's a family event. It's, you know, specifically as God is giving instructions for the Passover. He explains that this is supposed to be a moment for adults to teach children. And so it's sort of this wonderful moment where we can all see all the Old Testament points forward to Jesus. So if you're interested in joining us on Thursday, I would just ask that you RSVP.

I've done that to me already. We have a sheet in the back to fill out. The reason for that is it requires some special elements for this. And one of the things that Brent has to do is dig up some horseradish so that we can have herbs together. As you remember, the suffering of slavery followed by the sweetness of the apples and the honey that are mixed together to remind us of the freedom of God. So we need to make sure that we have enough of all these sort of special elements for the symbolic Passover. meal that we can set up the tables appropriately. So we'd love for you to join us. It's a lot of fun. And that's Thursday at 6 p.m. Also Friday at 6 p.m. we're going to be doing a Good Friday service. If you have not been here for a Good Friday service, it'll be a little darker, a little quieter. It's a time of sort of remembering the cross and seeing the suffering of the cross so that when we contrast that with the joy of the resurrection on Easter,

Sunday, we can see how clearly God brings from suffering to joy and how He comes to our sins and rises again for our victory. It's 40 minutes long, and that will be Friday night at 6 p.m. And so if you haven't talked to me afterwards, we'd love to have you RSVP to our Passover meal. So I'm going to pray. I'm going to read a verse from 1 Timothy that we read just a little bit earlier, and we'll sing the Doxology. Father in Heaven, thank You for grace. Thank You for loving us. Thank You for these moments to remember the goodness of the Gospel. Be with us as we walk through this week, as we consider Jesus our King, and as we see Him, may we proclaim Him to others just as Jesus has proclaimed to us in a way that is clear and understandable and humble and filled with love. May we be a light in a dark and broken world. It's in Jesus' name we

we pray. Amen. And so Paul in 1 Timothy 1 will say this, we read it just a moment ago, the saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the foremost. And so he will explain that Jesus does so, so that others can see that God loves those who seem unlovable and encouraged by that thought, Paul will say this, to the King of Ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. Praise Father, Son, Holy Ghost. Father, Son, Holy Ghost. Father, Son, Holy Ghost. Father, Son, Holy Ghost. Son, Holy Ghost. Son, Holy Ghost. Son, Holy Ghost.