Sunday, April 13

For our good King, who comes not during the night to attack or to punish, but He comes in the daylight to rescue and to save. And so like those people on the first Palm Sunday, will you lift our hearts in praise that we would call out in praise of your Son. We just thank you so much for Jesus and for grace. It's in your Son's name we pray. Amen. If you would, stand with me. We're going to read from the 118th Psalm, verses 19 through 21 together. 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. The righteous shall enter through it. I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation. This is the word of the Lord. And our kids are going to lead us in just a moment in a Palm Sunday processional.

You may not know the song, but be welcome to try to pick it up. Let's get some palm branches waving for them. Go ahead, Derek. Here we go! Jumping up and down. Jumping up and down. Jumping up and down. Shout Hosanna! Hosanna! Jumping up and down. Jumping up and down. Jumping up and down. Shout Hosanna! Hosanna! Here comes Jesus, riding on a donkey. Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna to the King! With the branches of the trees before Him, Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna to the King! Jesus is alive! Jesus is alive! Jesus is alive! Hosanna, Hosanna! Jesus is alive! Jesus is alive! Hosanna, Hosanna! Here comes Jesus, rising up in glory! Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna to the King! He is alive! Let's tell the worldly story! Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna to the King! Jumping up and down, jumping up and down, jumping up and down, jumping up and down, shall Hosanna, Hosanna! Jumping up and down, jumping up and down, jumping up and down, shall Hosanna, Hosanna! Very good! Thank you. Thank you.

We turn to you. Hope is stirring. Hearts are yearning for you. We long for you. 'Cause when we see you, we find strength. You face the dread. And in your presence, the loud fields are washed away. Washed away. Hosanna. Hosanna. You are the God who saves us. We're the evil of God. Praise us. Oh, hear the sound of hearts returning to you. We turn to you. In your kingdom, broken lives are made. You make all things new. 'Cause when we see you, we find strength to face the day. And in your presence, all our fears are washed away, washed away, frozen. Hosanna, Hosanna. You are the God who saves us. Worthy of all our praises. Hosanna, Hosanna. Come every way among us. We welcome you here. Hear you, Lord Jesus.

I set my hope on Jesus. When the questions come and doubts remain, I set my hope on Jesus. For the deepest wounds the time won't heal. There's a joy that runs still deeper. There's a truth that's more than all I have. I set my hope on Jesus. I set my hope on Jesus. My rock, my only trust. Who set His heart upon me first? I set my hope on Jesus.

Though I falter in this war with sin, I set my hope on Jesus. When I feel the fight and sink within, I set my hope on Jesus. Though the shame would drown me in its sea, and I dread the wave of justice, I will cast my life on Calvary. I set my hope on Jesus. I set my hope on Jesus. My God, my only trust. You set His heart upon me first. I set my hope on Jesus.

Though the world call me to leave, my Lord, I set my hope on Jesus. Though it offer all its vain rewards, I set my hope on Jesus. Though this heart of mine is prone to stray, give me grace enough to fill in. Rushing on that final day, I set my hope on Jesus. I set my hope on Jesus. My rock, my only trust. Who set his heart upon me first? I set my hope on Jesus. I set my hope on Jesus. My rock, my only trust. Who set his heart upon me first? I set my hope on Jesus. I set my hope on Jesus.

As we prepare to come around the table in just a few minutes from now, we'll spend some time talking about Jesus's triumphal entry into Jerusalem, and then on Monday, his cleansing of the temple. And one of the things that we don't think about much, because in our church most of us can go anywhere in the church that we would like to go, that in the first century and in the temple, and the series of courtyards that surround the holy place and the holy of holies were very restricted. So if you were a Gentile, you could only go so far. If you were a woman, you could only go so far. If you were a Jewish man, you could only go so far. In fact, they have uncovered several stones. Josephus records them that as you would go from the court of the Gentiles into the court of the women,

there would be a stone that was essentially a death threat. That if you were a foreigner, if you were unclean, to go any further into the temple for you would be death. In fact, historically we found a couple of these stones. They're now in museums. But I want you to imagine for a moment that kind of separation where you go to worship and to bring your sacrifice and to go before the most holy God only to be stopped by a threat that says, "If you go any farther, you will die." The good news of the Gospel and the hope that we just sang about is this: is that we, Hebrews says, have a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul. A hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

And the picture in this is that Jesus goes to the place in the temple where we could not go because of our brokenness and our sinfulness, but because of his sacrifice, we are now allowed to draw close. Therefore, God's people, there is no longer the separation of courtyards and of nationalities and of service in the temple, but that through Jesus all of us may draw near by grace. Let's pray. Father, as we eat this meal this morning, may you nourish our souls. May you, through your presence, remind us of the grace that has been poured out among us, that you have sent your Son to go where we could not go, to do what we could not do, so that we could be welcomed into those places from where we were excluded. We thank you that you have done this for us. We thank you for the death and the burial and the resurrection of your Son. And as we consider our lives this morning, may you bring us to repentance.

May you strengthen us in the midst of our struggles. May you give us courage in our fears. Most of all, may you overwhelm our lives by the grace that you have poured out upon us. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. If you would partake of the bread with me as Jesus shares with his disciples at the Last Supper, doing this in remembrance of Jesus. Will you take the cup with me? Jesus also shares with his disciples, and let's remember Jesus. Father in heaven, we thank you for this bread and this cup that is so deep and so wonderful. May you fill our hearts with hope and strength that we would see you and we would see your grace. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. At this point, we're going to dismiss the... We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. Let's pray. Let's pray. Let's pray. For more information, visit www.fema.org. For more information, visit www.fema.org. For more information, visit www.fema.org.

God bless you, Lord. Oh, your mercy never fails me. All my days I've been held in your hands. From the moment that I wake up, until I lay my head, I will sing of the goodness of God. All my life You have been faithful. All my life You have been so, so good. With every breath that I am able, I will sing of the goodness of God. I love Your voice. You have led me through the fire. In the darkest nights, You are close like no other. I've known You as a Father. I've known You as a friend. I have lived in the goodness of God. All my life, You have been faithful. All my life, You have been so, so good. With every breath that I am able, I will sing of the goodness of God.

Your goodness is running after, it's running after me. Your goodness is running after, it's running after me. With my life laid down, I'm surrendered now. I give You everything. Your goodness is running after, it's running after me. All my life, You have been faithful. All my life, You have been so, so good. With every breath that I am able, I will sing of the goodness of God. All my life, You have been faithful. All my life, You have been so, so good. With every breath that I am able, I will sing of the goodness of God. All my life, I will sing of the goodness of God. That there is good news about the King who has come to rescue us. I thank you for Jesus and for grace, and it's in His name we pray. Amen.

So we're going to pick up, before we get to Matthew, we want to go back about a thousand years, and to do that we're going to go back to 2 Samuel chapter 5. And what we're going to do is begin with a midnight raid, a military operation that occurs in the middle of the night. Now, we began with a king who wasn't always a king. He was the smallest and least important of all of his brothers. And he's now become a king, but his path to ruling the nation has not been easy or simple or without heartbreak or struggle. But he is finally almost to the place where his kingdom is complete. He has reigned for seven and a half years over the southern part of this country, the nation of Israel. And recently the country has been united and he now reigns over the northern half, reigning over the entire country.

And so it is time for this king to find a capital city. And this is a decision that is a bit fraught because the two halves of the country, the north and the south, don't always see eye to eye. Sometimes they struggle a little bit with inferiority. If the north is sort of too prominent, the south feels insecure. The same is true when the situation is reversed. And so this king, David, needs to find a capital city. And so he goes just a little bit into the northern part of the kingdom, just a few miles from the border with the southern part of the kingdom. And it's a perfect location for a capital of the nation of Israel. The part of the problem is that the city that he seeks to make his capital city does not belong to Israel.

It's occupied by the Jebusites, who in all reality should have been removed from this city when Israel enters the land under Joshua. But in Israel's disobedience and half-heartedness, they have never dealt with the Jebusites. And so David not only is going to work to complete the mission that God gave his people as they come into the land, he's seeking to unite his people with a new capital city. And unfortunately, this city does not want to be conquered. And so as David prepares to go against the city, this is what it says: "And the king and his men went to Jerusalem against the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land, who said to David, 'You will not come in here, but the blind and the lame will ward you off,' thinking David cannot come in here." And so the picture of this part of the city, it's on a hill on three sides. There's very steep hills, almost cliffs.

There's walls. And the Jebusites are very firm in their idea that nobody can come and nobody can take the city. In fact, they're so sure they say, "You know what? If we put our blind and our lame on the walls, you won't even be able to get by our blind guys, right? You're not even going to be able to sneak past the guys who cannot see." And there are some who think this is just maybe an insult toward David and his military might. And there's other commentators who think that this is a literal insult played out by them actually putting their blind and the lame on the walls and going, "Look, you can't even beat these guys." Look what happens. "And nevertheless, David took the stronghold of Zion, that is the city of David, and David said on that day,

"Whoever would strike the Jebusites, let him get up the water shaft to attack the lame and the blind who are hated by David's soul. Therefore, it is said, the blind and the lame shall not come into the house." And so in the first part, we find in verse 7 that David goes ahead and takes the city anyway. Verse 8 tells us how. That there is a water shaft that goes down to the spring, and part of this city's defense is that they have this spring of water. There's a cave on the mountain that leads into that, and they have drilled the shaft 49 feet down through solid rock. It's not a large shaft, and so David sends some men up through that shaft who secure that area, who open the gates of the city, and David ends up conquering this city in the middle of the night.

And so David comes to the city of Jerusalem in the middle of the night to conquer the city, to make it the capital city, the city that eventually would house the temple of God. Now I want to direct you toward his words, where he talks about to let him get up the water shaft to attack the lame and the blind who are hated by David's soul. This is not David literally saying, "I hate people who are blind, and I hate people who are lame." In fact, in 2 Samuel 9, he welcomes a lame man into his palace. This is a word of judgment against the pride of the Jebusites, right? Those who thought that they were so secure. The problem is, over time, people will make things mean what they want to mean. And we often times believe what we want it to believe, and so we end with this little note from the author of Samuel, who says this,

"Therefore it is said, the blind and lame shall not come into this house." And it becomes a saying as part of God's people, regardless of the meaning that David had for it in direction to the Jebusites. And it seems that these words, that have become a common saying among the people in the priestly restrictions in Leviticus 21, have become a "you are not welcome here" sign for the temple of God in later years, including up to the first century when Jesus comes. And so I want you to hold on to that idea of the blind and the lame being unwelcome, and I want us to fast forward a thousand years to a time when another king comes to Jerusalem, not in darkness or in secrecy, not to conquer, but to save. And this king comes to the same city. It's much bigger now, much more important.

It's been the heart of God's people for generation after generation. And the man who comes is not that much younger than David when he comes to Jerusalem. He is a descendant of David, and he is about to enter this city. Now this is a very different visit to Jerusalem. It's daylight, the gates are open, and Jesus is welcomed as the son of David. And one of the things I want us to understand as we go into this last week of Jesus's life is that it is filled with purpose and intentionality. The things that Jesus says and that Jesus does are with purpose and intention. And the purpose and the point of that is so that when we see his sacrifice on the cross, we understand that this was not accidental. This is not something that happened as a result of being in the wrong place or the wrong time,

but that Jesus intentionally gives himself for us. And in fact, Matthew's account, we see this in two different ways. One is in Jesus as he prepares to enter the city. And we read this in Matthew chapter 21. "Now when they drew near to Jerusalem, and it came to Bethpage, the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent his two disciples, saying to them, 'Go to the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied and a colt with you. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, 'The Lord needs them, and he will send them at once.'" And so you see Jesus' entry into Jerusalem is very intentional. But Matthew gives us a little bit of a deeper view. As he quotes from Zechariah, and he says, "Say to the daughter of Zion, 'Behold, your king is coming to you,

humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.'" And it's in accordance with prophecy and with intention that Jesus goes to save this crowd. And this crowd is massive. And so the ways I like to think about this is how busy Winchester gets during Apple Blossom. And according to the most recent statistic that I saw, over the course of the days of this festival, it draws something like 200,000 or 250,000 people to Winchester. And that's just from sort of our local, regional area. When you come to Passover, you are having people not just regionally come to Passover, but you are having people who have traveled across the world to come and to celebrate Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread in Jerusalem. And so in a couple weeks when you're driving through traffic,

you're annoyed that there's a bunch of out-of-towners in your town, right? A small picture of what Jesus is going through that's happening in Jerusalem as Jesus comes into town. And the crowd that gathers to welcome Jesus, there's all different kinds of people. It's easy for us to sort of put them all in one box and say, "Oh, they're all excited about Jesus," but the reality is there are some who are so excited to see Jesus. Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road. Others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. And the crowds that went before him and then 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 you see this sort of overwhelming enthusiasm, unchecked enthusiasm.

And they're pulling their outer garments, their coats off, and they're throwing them on the road before Jesus. They're setting palm branches on the road. They're waving palm branches in joyous procession. And you have to understand a little bit of what's happening here, is they're saying that Jesus is so wonderful and so important and so glorious that even the hooves of the animal that he rides should not be soiled by walking on this dirt road. And so some of these people are taking the only outer garment, the only coat they have, and they're throwing it on the ground for Jesus to ride on as he enters Jerusalem. And they are absolutely joyous about it. Then there are those who are curious. 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." And so you have people who may have heard of Jesus, but they don't know maybe a lot about him. We've experienced this, right? The excitement and the wonder, and we hear something going on, and we say, "Hey, what's going on?" So there's a group of people who are just absolutely unchecked in their excitement. There's another group who are curious, and they don't know what's happening, but they would like to know. And part of this, in John chapter 12, we learn that the crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to bear witness. The reason why this crowd comes out of Jerusalem to meet him was they had heard he had done this sign.

And so there are people talking about Jesus, people asking about Jesus. Almost every conversation in Jerusalem this week will likely center or refer to or at some point reference Jesus. But not everybody is curious or excited about Jesus. There are some who are very openly opposed to Jesus. And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, "Teacher, rebuke your disciples." And he answered, "I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out." And you have to imagine that's the Pharisees' worst nightmare, right? The crowd stopped singing, and the crowd stopped chanting, and the rocks start singing, and the rocks start chanting. That's the opposite of what they want to happen. In John 12, so the Pharisees said to one another, "You see that we are gaining, you are gaining nothing. Look, the whole world has gone out after him."

Their response to Jesus and their opposition is not necessarily rooted in unbelief. John 12 tells us they knew Jesus raised Lazarus. They wanted to kill him anyway. Kill him again! Their response was that they are losing their influence. And as we look at those who are around Jesus today, I think we see some of the same kinds of groups. There are people who are joyful and excited and willing to share about Jesus. There are those with questions, and there are those who oppose not necessarily because of unbelief, but because Jesus would require them to deeply change their life. And in the midst of this, we see Jesus who is intentionally riding a donkey through this crowd. And what I want us to look at this morning is I want you to see King Jesus, who comes not sneaking in in the middle of the night, but comes openly through the gates.

And He comes in the assurance of His identity as the Son of God, His love for the crowds, not just for the joyful or the curious, but even for those who oppose Him. He doesn't boast or threaten, kill, or curse. But He comes to lay down His life, and He turns the tables on our expectations, our priorities, our fears, and our brokenness. And He comes to Jerusalem to save His people. But He also comes very different, not just than how people have come to Jerusalem in the past, He comes very different from how the Romans would come to a city. If the Romans were coming to besiege and attack, the leader would ride on a mighty war horse to demonstrate His power. If they were coming into a conquered city, He would ride in elegance in a chariot.

And here comes Jesus. And look at what it says, and what it says to us. "Behold, your King is coming to you, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden." And this morning, I want you to see that Jesus is the King who loves deeply. If you think about what the attitude would be of someone who is in the middle of a parade in their honor, everyone is shouting, everyone is excited. We might be, for example, happy or triumphant, walking tall because we've just put those who have opposed us in our place. We've shown through our popularity that we are great, but I want you to see Jesus. Because he has a very different response to all of this. And when he drew near and saw, and so the picture of Jesus is coming down the Mount of Olives,

there's a place as you come down over the top where all of Jerusalem is spread out in front of you. And people are singing, and people are in front and behind. And Jesus, it says, "When he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it saying, 'Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that made for peace, but now they are hidden from your eyes.'" And you have this picture of Jesus not just coming into Jerusalem, but he looks at the city that his heart loves, and his heart melts. And maybe you haven't thought about this very long or very much, but Jesus, God in the flesh, cries. It's not just a tear. The word here, the idea of weeping, is that Jesus' eyes are filled and overflowing with tears.

Here the Son of God, with all his power and glory, looks on this city of sinful men that are about to reject him, and there's no thunder, there's no lightning, there's no earthquakes of destruction, and instead tears flow down the Savior's face. He weeps for the city. He weeps because what he has come to bring they have not seen. And this king is not like many who are in power today, who love those who love them and elevate those who have elevated them. This king loves even his enemies, and he loves them deeply. Matthew, with the excitement of all the circumstances, is telling us sort of all of these things at once. And we learn from the other accounts in Matthew and Mark and John, or in Mark and Luke and John, that Jesus, in between what happens next in Matthew, will go back to Bethany, spend the night,

and what we're about to look at in regards to our king happens on Monday morning. And I want you to know that our king, not only, but also he boldly and unmistakably confronts our sin. And we may think, especially in the world in which we live in today, that how can the confrontation of sin be loving? Shouldn't we support people doing what they choose to do? We have young kids. We have young dogs. Both of those things oftentimes are focused on what they want to do without regard for their well-being. So when the puppy says, "I want to run into the middle of the road, and I desire it with all my might," and I stop the puppy. And he's whining and crying and wanting to go into the middle of the road with all his might.

That's not an unkindness to confront that. It's a protection. And the confrontation of sin is not meant to be mean. It's meant to protect you. It's meant to save you. And it's not always easy because you and I are pretty hard-headed, right? And sometimes the only way to be a little soft-headed is sort of have your heads crack together. And so what Jesus does in his love, as he boldly and unmistakably confronts our sins, is this drastic moment in Matthew chapter 21 beginning in verse 12. "And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the moneychangers and the seats of all who sold pigeons, and he said to them, 'It is written, My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of robbers.'"

Temple complexes is so large, like 35 different acres, and there's different areas. This would have been the biggest area where people would have gathered. Any visits to the temple would require a sacrifice, and so if you come with a sacrifice, maybe from nearby, you're bringing a pigeon to sacrifice, you would come into the temple, you would bring it to one of these vendors, they would inspect it for ritual cleanliness, you would fail because your pigeon wasn't good enough, you'd have to buy a, they'll be like, "Well, we'll give you a trade in on your old junky pigeon, we'll give you a new pigeon that's been cleared by the priest for sacrifice, it's going to cost you." So you would exchange the pigeon that you had brought for a sacrifice for another pigeon, and they would immediately sell your pigeon to the guy behind you at an inflated rate.

This is not just a provision of sacrifices for those who need them. This is literally taking advantage of the poorest people, those who bring pigeons to offer and to worship. But also the money changers, right? Your Roman currency is no good here. In order to come and to buy that pigeon that you now have to upgrade, what's going to have to happen is you're going to have to change in these Roman coins for temple coins, and, surprisingly, the exchange rate is never good, right? So you're getting ripped off from the moment you come to worship. And so what does Jesus do? He comes in and He turns it all upside down. And imagine the chaos and the noise as the pigeons are flapping, the animals are squawking, and the coins are falling all over the ground, right?

Everybody hears coins drop, and all of a sudden we're all looking, especially if it's all your coins from your little bank that you've been running on the side, and you're trying to get all your money, and you're scrambling. This is absolute chaos. And in this, what Jesus is doing, two things: one of them showing them what their hearts are fixed on, what they're willing to chase after, what they're willing to scramble for. And actually Mark will talk about how Jesus is actually teaching them with these words. And He turns the tables on the moneylenders and the bird sellers, but He also does so for us. He calls us in our hearts for those things we've been chasing and scrambling for, and He calls us to fix our eyes on Him. And so we come to a king who loves deeply, who corrects honestly,

but He also boldly welcomes those who are often left outside to worship. You may say, "Well, how do you see that in this text?" We talked earlier about how the temple courts are sort of made up of a circuit of courts. They get ever more exclusionary the closer you get to the temple. The particular court where Jesus is at during the cleansing of the court is the court of the Gentiles. And if you were a Gentile, or a proselyte, or a God-fearing Gentile, this was as close as you could get to worshiping God. In the midst of the chaos of selling pigeons, of changing money, this was about where you could get to. But more than that, this part of the temple was a shortcut to get through town. Have you ever cut through the mall to get over to Lowe's? Right? It's our Winchester roundabout.

Same kind of thing happens. People are like, "I gotta get to the other side of town, quickest way." Right through the middle of the court of the Gentiles, and in Mark chapter 11, it says this: "And he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple." You say, "Why?" So that those who normally would be worshipping in the chaos of the selling, and the buying, and the truck traffic going through the middle, would at least have a moment of peace and of quiet to worship. And what's interesting is that Jesus, when He quotes, and while He teaches, He quotes from Isaiah 56:7, He says, "These I will bring to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house of prayer." And Jesus will critique the religious leaders by saying, "You have made my house, instead of being a house of prayer, a house of robbers."

Now, Jesus doesn't quote this part, but it would have been on the Pharisees' mind. For my house shall be called a house of prayer for what? All peoples. There's another exclusion that Jesus turns upside down. It's not just those who are on the outside, looking in, seeking to know the God of Israel. The temple has courts that come a little closer. But if you are blind, and if you are lame, you are allowed to go just a little farther, but not any more than that. And what's interesting is Jesus doesn't just welcome the outsider. I want you to see what he does in Matthew 21:24. It's a verse we maybe don't think about in the cleansing of the temple. "And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them."

So you can't see, you can't walk, you're excluded from worship. In part, from a misinterpretation of what David says in 2 Samuel 5, in part from a tightening of the restrictions that were meant for priests only in Leviticus. And so there are those who are blind and who are lame, who aren't able to come near to the house of God. And so what does Jesus do in the middle of all this chaos? He heals all the blind people. He heals all the lame. And they are able to go in and worship God. Those who were excluded are welcomed in. And that's the beauty of the Gospel. That we who are excluded because of our brokenness and sin, who are set and limited on where we could go, through Jesus can come close. Remember when we talked about David and his insults to the Jebusites and their insults to him?

And then everybody takes this seriously, misinterpreting David, beginning to say this. Do you know that Jesus only does two types of miracles in Jerusalem? He does two individual miracles that are recorded in these miracles here. The only two types of miracles that Jesus does in Jerusalem is he heals the blind and he heals the lame. The very people that through a misinterpretation of both Scripture and the words of David who had been sidelined, Jesus comes in and the only recorded miracles he does is the healing of the blind and the healing of the lame. You see, Jesus is making a statement about how he can turn brokenness upside down, how he can turn the tables in our life. And what we see is that Jesus welcomes the small and the seemingly unimportant, and I say seemingly because we're talking about two different perspectives. One from our perspective and one from God's perspective,

and he isn't just welcoming, he's correcting. Listen to what happens in Matthew chapter 21. "When the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, Hosanna to the son of David." And they were indignant, and they were saying to him, "Do you hear what these are saying?" And Jesus said to them, "Yes, have you ever read out of the mouths of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise?" And so these people are mad. And they're mad about a lot of stuff. They're mad that Jesus has cleansed the temple. They're mad that he has healed the blind and the lame. But what really seems to push them over the edge is a group of kids. And if you've been around kids, you know exactly what's happened. They saw, the day before, this parade in Jerusalem with palm branches

crying, "Hosanna to the son of David!" And so what do these kids do when they see Jesus? And they pick up all the leftover palm branches, and they're following him around in the midst of all of this chaos, in the temple, saying, "Hosanna to the son of David!" acting out what they had just seen happen the day before. And this is what sends the religious leaders over the edge. Maybe they're even doing this as Jesus cleanses the temple. But I love this picture of Jesus surrounded by literally a mob of children just shouting His praises. And Jesus, He's not bothered by it. He loves it. He sees it as a fulfillment of Scripture. And here comes the religious leaders. They say, "Make those kids be quiet." And Jesus responds with the 8th Psalm, but He's not nice about it.

Listen to what He says, "Have you ever read?" So you guys are the religious leaders. You're the Bible scholars, the Bible teachers. Have you ever read the book you purport to preach? And then He quotes in the book of Psalms, "Out of the mouths of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise." And what Jesus is doing is He's rearranging our standards by welcoming the small and those that everybody else around Him views as an annoyance or as unimportant. Jesus says, "They are mine and they are proclaiming the goodness of God." So I want to direct you this morning to King Jesus. We've walked through a lot of events, but more than anything, I want you to see your King. Who doesn't come to conquer, but He comes to save. He comes to transform your heart, to heal your brokenness.

And He delights in the praise of the small and the lowly. The King who confronts the emptiness of all those things you've been scrambling after. And He calls you to quiet worship. I want you to see the King who turns everything around, even the thousand years of history, by healing. That is our King. And He is the one that we must proclaim, not just with our words, but with our lives. The triumphant entry of Jesus saves, it confronts, it loves, cares, shows us how we live. And we are called not just to say this with our words, but as Christians we are called to live this with our lives. And it's convicting because we, like the people who heard David's original words in 2 Samuel, we can be hard-hearted. And so Jesus comes to soften our hearts.

This triumphant entry points us to another triumphant entry. There's another day, not like David's day a thousand years before, not even like this day where Jesus comes as a donkey, on a donkey. But a day of Revelation says, "And I saw the heaven opened, and behold a white horse, the one sitting upon it called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war." And in verse 16, "On his robe and on his thigh he has the name written: King of Kings and Lord of Lords." The King who has come in love, and he comes to correct us in the midst of all of our scrambling in life, the one who comes to quiet for worship, to bring in the outsider, to heal the broken, the one who desires and delights in the praise of the little.

One day he's coming back, and he's coming back as a king to both rescue his people, but also to judge those who have rejected him. Let us pray. Father in heaven, help us to examine our hearts. It's easy to become callous. It's easy to become stuck in our own opinions and our own ideas. It's easy to take things and to miss the heart of what is happening, and help us, as we see Jesus our King, to not be like that. May our hearts be softened for this world that is in need of the Prince of Peace. Help us to be willing to stand for what's right, calling for correction, not in anger, but in love. Teaching, even if sometimes it requires flipping some tables. Help us to seek to bring those to your kingdom that are often overlooked and seen as too small.

Help us to see our King Jesus and to follow Him. In His name we pray. Amen. We're going to stand and sing and look forward to that day when Jesus returns. So, if you would stand with me.

I believe in Christ, risen from the dead. He now reigns victorious. His kingdom knows no end. Through this resurrection, death has lost its hope. I know on that final day I'll rise as Jesus rose. On that day, we will see you shining brighter than the sun. On that day, we will know you as we lift our voices one. Till that day, we will praise you for your never-ending grace. And we will keep on singing on that glorious day. What a blessed hope, though now tired and warm. We will spend eternity around our sayiest thorns. Though we grieve our losses, we grieve not in vain. For we know our crown of glory and glory. We are beyond the grave. On that day, we will see you shining brighter than the sun. On that day, we will know you as we lift our voices one. Till that day, we will praise you for your never-ending grace. And we will keep on singing on the chorus.

On that glorious day. Hallelujah, what a day it will be. For at home with you, my joy is going to be. As I roll you to your arms open wide, I will see. My Father who is waiting for me. Hallelujah, what a day it will be. For at home with you, my joy is going to be. As I roll you to your arms open wide, I will see. My Father who is waiting for me. My Father who is waiting for me. On that day, you shining brighter than the sun. On that day, we will know you as we lift our voices one. Till that day, we will praise you for your never-ending grace. And we will keep on singing on that glorious day. On that day, we will see you shining brighter than the sun.

On that day, we will know you as we lift our voices one. Till that day, we will praise you for your never-ending grace. And we will keep on singing on that glorious day. And we will keep on singing on that glorious day. Let's pray. Let's pray. Let's pray.

Praise God, from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him, all creatures here below. Praise Him, above ye heavenly hosts. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Father, Son, Holy Ghost. Jesus said, "Follow me." Let's pray. Jesus said, "Follow me." Let's pray. Jesus said, "Follow me." Let's pray.