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Study given Sunday March 24, 2024
We'd love to hear from you. Message us here.
Study given Sunday March 24, 2024
All right, john, chapter 12, verse 12. Well, here we are. Although we don't officially follow a liturgical calendar I can't even say it it makes sense. To hit Palm Sunday, as being a week out from Easter Makes good sense, and all four gospel accounts include this event in one form or another. John's account here is a little shorter and to the point, and we're hitting it here in John, chapter 12, verse 12.
Speaker 1:Understanding the events that led up to this point, jesus has had a good three years or so of ministry and just the day before this, jesus is over the hill, over the Mount of Olives, in the town of Bethany, and he is enjoying an appreciation dinner there. And you remember, just in chapter 11, he has not just healed somebody, he's raised Lazarus from the dead. And the appreciation is there for Mary, martha and Lazarus, in a way. And there they are reclining at the table and Mary comes in to the room. She breaks open some costly perfume, some costly ointment on Jesus on his feet, and anoints him. Now, you remember, there's Judas at the table, not so excited about this event. He gets upset and he says, oh, this could have been sold and the money given to me, I mean the poor. And John makes it pretty clear he said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he's the guy who kept the money bag right and Judas is well. This is the last straw for him and from that point on he decides how he's going to betray Jesus. Well, the religious leaders in the area there, they feel the same way. They want to betray, they want to get Jesus. They want to put him to death. They also want to put Lazarus to death. How strange is that? Somebody who's just been raised from the dead. They're trying to kill him because his testimony is just a little bit too strong. So all this has happened the day before what we read here in John, chapter 12, verse 12. We read the next day.
Speaker 1:Picture it a great multitude that had come to the feast that's Passover. When they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him and cried out Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel. Then Jesus, when he had found a young donkey, sat on it, as it is written Fear not, daughter of Zion, behold, your king is coming sitting on a donkey's colt. His disciples did not understand these things first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered these things were written about him and that he had done these things. They had done these things to him. So here we see a very common picture.
Speaker 1:This time of year it's Palm Sunday, we would call it and here is a great multitude. They have palm branches, they're waving them in the air, they're laying them on the ground. Jesus comes down the Mount of Olives, there facing the Temple Mountain, in the temple. He comes down the Mount of Olives riding on a donkey not just that, a donkey's colt and the people cry out. Did they understand exactly what they're saying? Maybe not. Maybe they cry out the words of Psalm 118, hosanna, save now, please save us, right now. Be our king, is what they were saying. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Jesus rides down that mountain on a donkey and into the city of Jerusalem. Now, jesus rides on a donkey.
Speaker 1:It was a picture of a king or a political leader coming in peace. So you have to picture this right to get the whole flavor of the event right. Picture Jesus on a donkey. It's almost comical really. A donkey right. They just kind of bring laughter with just about everything they do. It's definitely humble, it's definitely meek and in comparison to how we see Jesus coming in the end of the book, in the book of Revelation, as his second coming, he comes on a white horse.
Speaker 1:Now compare the two for just a second. A white horse and a donkey. Right, a white horse man, we can see them galloping right. You see them even in a movie or something, just galloping across the screen, somebody on it just going like mad, and there's something in you that goes, wow, that's majestic, right. Then you see a donkey, a little like me, right? You know horses gallop, donkeys trot. They're a little stiffer, not made for speed. I looked it up, do donkeys gallop? And it says not much. You know they're a little stiffer, not made for speed. I looked it up, do donkeys gallop? And it says not much. You know, they're just not made for it, they're not built for it. They trot, they canter, I guess, is the word, and they're a little less majestic.
Speaker 1:Think about it, there's some vulnerability involved in riding a donkey. If you're on a horse, you say oh, retreat, retreat. Think about it. There's some vulnerability involved in riding a donkey. You're on a horse, you say oh, retreat, retreat, and everybody just gallops off, you know, with a charge kind of thing. If you're on a donkey, you go, let's go. It's like you know what I mean. You're not running away, you're not getting away fast, you're vulnerable, you're humble. He's at the whim of the people, really, and that's how Jesus comes.
Speaker 1:Now Zachariah here. We have a quote there in verse 15. Zachariah says not just a donkey, but a donkey's colt. Now I don't know if Jesus was actually sitting on a donkey's colt, a baby donkey, right, it sounds a little cruel. This, you know. Muscular carpenter, you know, with his feet dragging on the ground as he goes. You know, I don't know, but we definitely see a picture of humility here.
Speaker 1:Now the crowd's response we see here they get their palm branches. That makes the holiday complete to have palm branches, you know, and they're waving them. This would take us back to the days of the Maccabees. You probably haven't heard so much of the Maccabees. They're in what's known as the Apocrypha. The Catholic Bible includes that, but it's a book of history. It has some issues, as I understand. But the Maccabees came and they delivered the people of Israel from a crazy Greek ruler named Antiochus. They delivered the city of Jerusalem through rebellion and just standing up, and they reclaimed a temple that was defiled. They lit the lamp there and, miraculously, the oil just continued to go, celebrated there by the holiday of Hanukkah, right. And these Maccabees came in and this was their sign, so to speak the palm branches.
Speaker 1:So see what the people are saying here as they yell out Psalm 118, yell out Psalm 118, save now. As they wave palm branches, they're making the Romans a little nervous, right? The Romans did not like this time of year Passover, essentially Israeli Independence Day, you know. And there they are waving palm branches and yelling out save, now, save us from the oppressor. Riding into Jerusalem, here comes Jesus. The Romans were not crazy about that. The people cry out. That word cry out, just to picture it. It means to croak, it means to kind of screech a little bit the sound of a raven that a raven makes. It's the sound that you make when you're at your kid's sports game, right, yeah, come on, get him. You know, until your voice is a little hoarse, right? That's what's going on here is that people are crying out save, now, be our king.
Speaker 1:Matthew 21 lets us know it was mainly the children that cried out. So picture it there, the religious leaders, the chief priests and the scribes, we're told, didn't care for this. Matthew 21, you can turn if you want, but I'll read it. Matthew 21, parallel account, verse 15. But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did and the children crying out in the temple and saying Hosanna, save now, son of David, they were indignant and said to him Do you hear what these are saying? Jesus said to them yes, have you never read out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants? You have perfected praise. So we see here the response of the chief priests and the scribes, the religious leaders there in the temple, and the scribes. They were the teachers of the law. They saw the wonderful things. Now check it out there if you're there. In Matthew 21, 15. It says there when they saw the wonderful things that Jesus did, they were indignant. So they saw all these wonderful things that Jesus did raising Lazarus right, coming into the temple, the miracles and the teaching and the love and all these things. They saw the wonderful things. It's just kind of crazy to me that you can see wonderful things of God and then be mad about it. And that's their response. They were indignant.
Speaker 1:In Luke 19, verse 39, we see the Pharisees called to Jesus in this crowd and they said teacher, rebuke your disciples. But he answered and said to them I tell you that if these should keep silent, stones would immediately cry out. So here we see the Pharisees there in Luke, chapter 19. We see the Pharisees they were practical leaders, leaders in holiness and holy life, leaders in holiness and holy life no-transcript. And they say cut it out. So the religious leaders, the scribes they're jealous of Jesus. They don't want to lose their power and their honor. The Pharisees upset at Jesus, they don't want to lose their place and their respect from the people and they feel envy. It's crazy how far envy can get you. Pilate noticed that they brought Jesus out of envy.
Speaker 1:Something like envy in our heart can lead to this. So we see the response of the people kind of blindly crying out Hosanna, save. Now we see even his disciples didn't quite understand things until after the fact. The religious leaders they respond by just closing off and really we can criticize people from 2,000 years ago. But to consider our own heart Now come back. This is the important part to hear. Right, to consider our own response to Jesus coming as king in our lives, our own heart, the heart, now come back for reals. Our heart is where everything starts. A relationship with God starts in the heart. Our relationship to sin starts in the heart. We let a little bit of bitterness in our heart and it grows and it just consumes us. We let God's word into our heart and it grows in the same way, in a better way, it consumes us, but it comes down to our heart.
Speaker 1:Romans, chapter 10, verse nine. We were in Romans not long ago. We read this Confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead and you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made into salvation. So two things we see here salvation happens with confession and belief.
Speaker 1:Confession with our mouth or with our life, and belief in our heart. Now check it out. Without both of those together they're both dead. Right. Without works in our life, faith is dead. Belief in our heart is sort of worthless. Without belief in our heart, confession doesn't mean much. That's why it's kind of scary to me. I mean, god's big enough to take care of it. I'm not that scared, but it's a little scary to me when we work so hard in the church to get someone to say a prayer. Oh, just say after me, maybe you're here and you just had a rough week. Pray this prayer with me, jesus, I know I'm a sinner, come into my heart Now. I think God can work some pretty amazing things. But if we just work to get someone to say a prayer, we're leading them the wrong direction. To say a prayer, we're leading them the wrong direction because confession without belief in our heart is dead. It's not going to save us.
Speaker 1:A relationship with God starts in the heart, and isn't that one of the most terrifying things? As we look at our kids, our friends, the people that we love, we absolutely can't see into their heart. We can sometimes see the result of things in their heart right the works, right Sin comes from evil in our heart and it comes out in our life. Love comes from faith in our heart, I guess you could say and it comes out in our life. Love comes from faith in our heart. I guess you could say and it comes out in our life, but you can't really see into someone's heart. There's a whole lot of trust involved as we look at what people say, but then what's in their heart? But what's in our heart? We do our best.
Speaker 1:But even David said to the Lord search me and try me, see if there'd be any wicked way in me. I think David himself said God, I don't even know my own heart. I think I know my own heart. I think I'm really sincere in the things I say and do. But, god, you know my heart. God, you know my heart. God, try my heart and see if there's any wicked way in me. It's so important that we let everything else go and just consider where our hearts are at.
Speaker 1:This really took me back to Matthew, chapter 13. And just, you don't have to turn, but you can go look at it another time. But you know it, it's the parable of the sower. So Jesus the king is really seen as Jesus the farmer, right, and he's going out into a field. In the parable of the sower. He goes out into a field and he scatters seed, jesus the farmer, you know. Now we're told in Matthew 13 that the seed is the word of God. So picture it God's word is like seed. The soil that it falls in is like our heart. Now, now listen, even though I know you've heard this before. Listen. The soil is like our hearts, and whatever our heart is like determines what God's truth will do in us. So check it out.
Speaker 1:Jesus tells a story. Picture it A sower went out to sow and as he threw seed out onto ground, some of it fell on the wayside, on the trail, the path packed down dirt like concrete. And Jesus says the birds. We can picture that, man, there are a crazy amount of birds around late, aren't there? They're all coming back and they're just everywhere. You know, the birds came and that seed. The birds came and that seed they ate up. And it didn't grow because it was in some bird's stomach, right? And Jesus went on to say some seed, other seed fell on rocky ground and the seed sprang up like a science project you know what I mean Hanging there on a toothpick in a glass. You know big avocado seed. It started to grow and the roots started to go down, but it didn't find any soil. When the sun came out, it withered and died. Jesus goes on riveting story of plants, right? Jesus goes on and says other seed is like seed that falls in ground with thorns, it's cluttered with weeds and although it tries to grow, it can't get what it needs, it's crowded out, it's choked out that's a picturesque word and it becomes unfruitful. But some seed and here's where we all go. Ah yes, some seed fell on good ground and it grew and it produced fruit.
Speaker 1:Now Jesus goes on to explain to his disciples that this is a picture of God's word in our hearts. Now check it out. God's word in our hearts will either grow or die, depending on what our hearts are like, depending on what your heart is like. If it's like the hard ground, just proud, I don't need that. I've heard that before. I don't need to listen to God's word. I got other things going on. If we're proud and won't receive humbly God's word, the birds, jesus says the birds are like the devil. They come and just eat up God's word that's planted. Now check it out. If our heart is hard. Growing up in the church I had a very hard heart. I still have a hard heart sometimes because I've heard it a lot of times. Have a hard heart sometimes because I've heard it a lot of times and God's word wanting to grow, doesn't grow because of that. Now check it out.
Speaker 1:The ground that's like stony ground, rocky ground, is the one, that the seed just grows immediately. It's like some of these people here when Jesus rode into Jerusalem and they say Hosanna, hosanna, can you just picture them all jumping up and down? Yeah, parade party, you know, and that's as far as they went. When the dust settled, they just kind of went on the ground that has thorns. Now really come back, for this one is distracted, it's cluttered.
Speaker 1:Jesus says with the deceitfulness of riches comes the desire for other things, comes into our heart and it just chokes out what God wants to do. We have another obsession in our heart, another love in our heart, and God's saying I love you so much, look what I've done for you. And we just don't have the time of day. I think that's the American way, isn't it? I think that's the American way, isn't it? We're very cluttered, we're very distracted, and yet God says why don't you just come away for a minute? Why don't you just stop what you're doing? Why don't you just put all the junk and the organizing of your week aside for a second and just listen?
Speaker 1:I want to tell you something, but either way, whatever it is, we have to take time to look at our own hearts, because even if I sat down with each one of you. I wouldn't know what's in your heart. I don't know what's in your heart, but God can search your heart and God can say what you need to hear. God can tell you what you need to know, but we have to have our hearts directed towards him. Now, check it out. I will be gone Good Friday. We'd love to have a Good Friday service but I'll be out of the country.
Speaker 1:Some of you know most of you probably know be out of the country and yet to just come to the country some of you know most of you probably know we're out of the country and yet to just come to the cross is the best thing that we could do for our hearts, to just come to the cross and see what Jesus has done for us. I encourage you guys, friday, find somewhere maybe to go and celebrate Good Friday, and you can do that. That's good. But today we're going to have communion as we end our time. That's why the little ones are coming in. They're going to join us for communion and we're going to spend time rather simply here just remembering what God has done for us. So they're coming in and what we're going to do is we're going to play a couple songs and we're going to pass out the elements for communion and we'll take it together. So everybody just hold on to that and we'll take it together as family.
Speaker 1:Individually, however, you want to look at that, but we just want to remember the goodness of God, the love of God, and let it affect our hearts. Let's pray, god. We want to thank you, as we just head into this time together, for all that you've done for us. Thank you that this isn't just juice, it isn't just a cracker, but, god, it represents your amazing love for us, god, it was this time of year that Jesus sat with his friends, his disciples, and he made that connection for us. God, as we spend time, we just pray that you'd search our hearts. God, if we're obsessing over something, god, we just pray that you would be greater than that obsession. God, if we're really just struggling and I know we are just pray that we would see and we can cast all of our cares on you, because you really do practically care for us. So, god be in this time as we give it to you. In Jesus' name, we pray Amen.
Speaker 1:So, jesus, the night before he went to the cross, he took bread, probably a little different than the bread that we have here, but made of the same stuff, and Jesus took it and broke it and he gave it to his disciples and he said to them take and eat. This is my body broken for you. Now, once again, his disciples had no idea what he was talking about. They got this strange fear over them about what he was saying, about dying and all of this. But they had no idea until after the fact that Jesus would actually lay down his life, lay down his body for us us and it's to remind us just again that our King is so powerful and so everything. And yet he humbly laid down everything for us.
Speaker 1:So we want to remember this as we take this bread. We want to remember and thank him for that love. Pray with me, god. Just thank you for your body broken, that you became one of us and lived God. And we can get so wrapped up in the comfort of our own flesh and our own body and just forget how humble and how kind you've been to us, god. You let your creation treat you so just, viciously, and yet, god, you loved us in this. God, if we ever forget your concern for us. Help us to remember your body Lay down for us. God, you're so kind, work these things not just in our head, but in our heart even now. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. Let's take this bread. Well then, jesus? Well then, Jesus took a cup of wine juice will do just fine pressed grapes and he took it and he said to his disciples something else they didn't understand this cup is my blood, the blood of a new covenant. He took it and he said to his disciples something else they didn't understand this cup is my blood, the blood of a new covenant, a new promise between God and man. Now check it out. He said as you take this, remember me.
Speaker 1:We remember just the amazing forgiveness that God has shown us, that, no matter how sinful we are, how selfish we've been, the Bible says the blood of Jesus can cover us from every single sin. It can wash us clean. I don't know about you, but I need that. As I look at my own life and my own heart, I know how messed up and just dirty I can get in sin. And check it out. The blood of Jesus can make us clean from every single sin. The devil will come back around and kick us and say, yeah, but your sin is so bad, your heart is so dirty. And we can agree and say, yeah, but the blood of Jesus covers us, cleanses us, makes us clean from every single sin. That's good news, that's amazing news, that when we come to Jesus, we can come in his blood, and God looks at us and smiles. So let's just thank him for this.
Speaker 1:God, thank you for your blood, Jesus, thank you for laying down your life totally and completely for us. God, for a dark moment, we can just think about the way that we've let you down and the things that we've let into our heart and mind, even into our eyes. And yet, god, you can make us clean and righteous and holy, not because of who we are, but because of who you are. God, I just pray you change our heart. In that, god, that our heart would be totally yours. God, we just ask that you'd work a miracle and help us to understand, just this time of year, the great love that you have for us. We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen, thank you.