Episode Transcript
WEBVTT
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Jesus, as I mentioned earlier in
the service, is just caused a man
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to rise from the dead. He
does so as he himself begins to go
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to his own death. We read
of a parade to the grave this morning,
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John Twelve, a verse twelve.
The next day the large crowd that
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had come to the feast heard that
Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, so they
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took branches of palm trees and went
out to meet him, crying Hosanna.
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Blessed is he who comes in the
name of the Lord, even the King
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of Israel. and Jesus found a
young donkey and sat on it, just
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as it is written. Fear not, daughter of sign behold your king is
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coming, sitting on a donkey's Colt. His disciple did not understand these things
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at first, but when Jesus was
glorified, they remembered that these things had
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been written about him and had been
done to him. The crowd that had
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been with him when he called Lazarus
out of the tomb and raised him and
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raised him from the dead, continued
to bear witness. The reason why the
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crowd went to meet him was that
they heard that he had done this sign.
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So the Pharisee said to one another, you see that you are gaining
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nothing. Look, the world has
gone after him. I'll read one more
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verse now. Among those who went
up to worship at the feast were some
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Greeks. You maybe seated. In
this passage, John Chapter Twelve, we
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have the crowds, these great,
swelling, growing crowds, a crying out
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to Jesus, Hosanna, blessed is
he who comes in the name of the
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Lord, even the King of Israel. And then again we have these words
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recorded fear not, Daughter of Zion, behold your king, this coming,
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sitting on a donkey's Colt. Both
this quote from scripture and the words of
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the crowds come from scripture, both
of these passages, and I'd like to
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go to those passages with you this
morning and read them as well. So,
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if you would turn to the end
of your old testaments, almost to
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the very end. This is Zachariah
chapter nine, will read a few verses
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there and then also from Psalm one
hundred and eighteen. These are verses that
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John tells us through the work of
the spirit, inspiration of the spirit.
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These are are things that the disciples
didn't understand at the time that they were
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happening, but later understood when Jesus
was glorified, and you may understand them
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as well. So let's give our
attention to it. Zacharyon nine, verse
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nine. It is a prophecy of
victory. Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of
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Zion, Shout Aloud, oh daughter
of Jerusalem. Behold, your king is
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coming to you righteous and having salvation. Is He humble and mounted on a
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donkey, on a cult the full
of a donkey. I will cut off
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the chariot from Efreel and the war
horse from Jerusalem, and the battle bow
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shall be cut off, and he
shall speak peace to the nation's his rule
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shall be from sea to see and
from the river to the ends of the
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Earth. Will lend there. And
turn now to Psalm one hundred eighteen,
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and here the words that the crowds
were chant team. So Psalm one hundred
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eighteen versus twenty five and twenty six. Save us, we pray, oh
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Lord, oh Lord, we pray, give us success. Blessed is he
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who comes in the name of the
Lord. We bless you from the House
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of the Lord. We also need
to take into account some of the rest
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of the Psalm. Will read just
a little bit before this, if you
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look, for example, at Verse
Twenty Two, just a few verses for
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before we have this. The stone
that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.
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This is the Lord's doing. It
is marvelous in our eyes. This
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is the day that the Lord has
made. Let us rejoice and be glad
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in it. Save us, we
pray. Oh Lord, oh Lord,
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we pray, give us success.
So with these words, these prophecies,
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these words in our minds, let's
turn back to John Chapter Twelve now and
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consider what is going on here.
Well, we have is the very dramatic
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and intimate events of Mary and Lazarous
and Judas there and sign in this house
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now turn into very dramatic and public
events, as Jesus announces in a way
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that he is the Messiah. You
Remember, back in John Chapter six,
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the crowds wanted to make him king
and he ran away to a mountain because
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it wasn't time. Yet. There's
no hesitation on Jesus's part at this time,
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though. He is ready. It
is time. You remember also that
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Jesus said that he does not have
his life taken away from him, as
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though he were subject to people,
but he lays it down because of his
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own authority, authority that had been
given to him by his father. This
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is not true of our lives,
right we do not know the time of
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our deaths. We don't know when
these will happen. Jesus, however,
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in his divinity, knew these things
and would not lay down that life,
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laid down his life, until it
was the proper time. Everything happens perfectly
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and always according to God's sovereign plan
at a moment of it. Not a
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single thing is left up to chance. Even this animal that Jesus is riding
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on, this donkey, is a
part of God's will in this plot,
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in this particular instance, I'm filled
with meaning and recorded in prophecies and at
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another evidence and testimony that Jesus is
in fact the Messiah. To give just
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a little bit of context to this
parade to the grave, as I've called
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it, we have the crowds growing, swelling. Why are they there?
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Well, previous to this, you
may remember that they were all asking,
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whispering, will he come to Jerusalem? There was a time when not many
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knew about Jesus, when only a
few people were aware of who he was
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and what he was doing, but
by this point in his ministry that wasn't
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the case anymore. Jesus is a
fully public figure. Now he has an
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arrest warrant, we might say the
leaders, we're looking to arrest him.
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This was public knowledge. And would
Jesus come to Jerusalem at this time of
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the pass over, this great feast, when people did this? Would he
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come? Would he be arrested?
What was going to happen? There's exciting
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public, tabloid like news and it
was happening all around them. Then,
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on top of that, you have
this event where Lazarus had just been raised
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from the dead. People wanted to
see this man that he had raised Lazarus
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from the dead, and they wanted
to see Lazarus too, see the dead
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man who is now alive. I
wouldn't that be an amazing thing? Let's
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go see him, let's see if
we can find him. Do you think
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he's coming? Everything is buzzing in
Jerusalem with about Jesus. In fact,
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the news was so strong in,
the interest was so strong in both Jesus
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and Lazarus that the leaders have decided
to put them both to death. Let's
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still Lazarus, because this is too
much of a problem. This is getting
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out of hand. You see,
how corrupt, by the way, that
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the leadership had become so blinded and
insanely consumed by their own desire for power
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that they are willing to kill not
only Jesus, who is this great threat
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to them, who had done nothing
wrong, but now other people, to
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Lazarus. His only sin, which
is no sin at all, was being
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brought from death to life by Jesus. This, of course, is going
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to to be come in many ways, the mark of all Christians. When
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we put when we are those who
have been rescued out of the grave by
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Christ, we become marked men and
women. The world hates us. Why?
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Because they hate him. We are
the marks of His grace, we
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are the marks of his power,
we are those that he has put his
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name on. Blessed is the one
who comes in the name of the Lord.
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Certainly applies to Jesus, and it
also applies to all who are in
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Jesus. We are the blessed ones, we are the holy ones, not
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because of any great thing in us, but simply because he has said come
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out, and we came out of
our graves, we came out of death
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and because the Lord, because the
world sees him in us, it will
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hate us, will want to kill
us, because it is opposed to him.
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The crowds aren't at that point.
The crowds are excited. The crowds
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are interested. The crowds are curious. Some of them perhaps great believers,
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wonder, looking forward to the things
that the savior will do. Others,
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perhaps they're just for the show,
but nevertheless they are. They all are.
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A large crowd, we read had
gathered in verse twelve that had come
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to the feast when they heard that
Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, knowing this
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and preparing the lay way. The
other gospels tell us that Jesus had told
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his disciples to go and find this
donkey, and they did. You can
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read about that in the other gospels. Here he finds it, they find
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it for him, he sits on
it and he enters into Jerusalem and as
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he does so, the people,
these great crowds, are crying out Hosanna,
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blessed is he who comes in the
name of the Lord. They're throwing
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palm branches down on the ground,
they're waving palm branches in the air.
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This is a as I said,
a parade, a celebration, but it
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is a very particular kind of parade. This is a victory parade. This
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is the kind of parade that you
have after a war is over to celebrate
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that victory. Is the heroes come
home, or, in this case,
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the great hero arrives, the Great
Savior, the great hope, the great
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king, and they are welcoming him
into his capital city, the place where
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the temple is, into Jerusalem.
How do we see this? Well,
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first we see it in this word, Hosanna. Hosanna is a Hebrew word
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which means he saves US or save
us. More particularly in the Psalm,
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it comes with a plead, a
pleading like please save us, a does
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an intensif ocasion of that deliver us. Hosanna, save us, save us.
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They see him as the savior,
at least in some aspect. That's
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why they're saying that Hosanna save us, Hosanna save us. This is the
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cry of needy people who see their
savior and are calling out to him.
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Remember, this is why Jesus came
in John Seventeen. We have this,
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for God did not send his son
into the world to condemn the world,
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but in order that the world might
be saved through him. Jos Anna,
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save us, John Ten nine.
Jesus says, I am the door.
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If anyone enters by me, he
will be saved and will go in and
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out and find pasture, a gentle
image, powerful civil and this is what
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Jesus does. He is, as
John Proclaims, the Lamb of God who
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takes away the sin of the world. He will atone for our death or
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for our sin. In his death
he will deliver us from the great spiritual
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plague that is on all humanity.
He will make us worthy of eternal life.
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He will give to us that physical
life. He will give to US
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resurrection of the dead, as he
is done for Lazarus, and even better,
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as he does it with glorified bodies, bodies that will not die again.
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If you had to pick one word, and only one word, that
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you could say to Jesus, hosanna
would be a very good candidate. Save
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us, deliver me, help me, and that's what the crowds are crying
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out. But of course it does
matter what it is exactly you're asking to
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be saved from. Right if,
if you are asking to be saved from
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you know, I can't. Sorry, I shouldn't try and make this up
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on the fly, if you're a
lot of times we focus on on narrow
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things, on on temporal things.
We want deliverance from, you know,
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these these tiny things in our lives. Sometimes they feel quite big. But
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Jesus comes to do something much bigger
than we often see. That's bigger than
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we often expect, and that happens
that that kind of thing is happening here,
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and John Twelve is as we will
see. Before we get to that,
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let's consider the second thing that they
say blessed is he who comes in
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the name of the Lord. Here
they proclaim truly that Jesus is the one
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who has been sent from God for
this salvation of the people. He is
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the one who has been promised to
come, he is the scent one and
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is therefore called blessed. Jesus not
only represents God in this world, as
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you might understand, he comes in
the name of the Lord, but he
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is God in this world. He
not only proclaims the word of God,
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he is the word of God,
and this he has made evident throughout all
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of these chapters that we have been
hearing. All that he has from the
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has, he has from the Father
Jesus tells us that the father has given
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everything to him. Remember that this
is one of the core messages of the
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gospel of John, that the one
who comes to save us is the son
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of God, as Jesus says in
John Twenty eight. I do nothing on
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my own authority, but speak just
as the father taught me John Ten eighteen.
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No one takes it, that is
his life, from me, but
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I lay it down of my own
accord. I have authority to lay it
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down and I have authority to take
it up again. This charge I have
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received, I have done from my
father. To know Jesus there for is
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to know God. He is blessed
and all who are blessed in him.
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Finally, they call him the King
of Israel. This is not present in
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the Psalm, and this is probably
because the there is more yet, one
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more passage in mine, one from
Genesis, which reminds us that this king
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would co would come, would be
the great king from Judah, fulfilling these
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hopes of Israel. We consider Zacharai
and nine. I'm going to turn back
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there if I can find this tiny
book as Zachar there we go, a
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Zachara and nine. This hope of
Israel was in a kingly form. Remember
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what it says. I will this
powerful language, I will cut off the
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chariot from EAC e Freem and the
war horse from Jerusalem, and the battle
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bow shall be cut off. Behold, your king is coming to you,
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righteous and having salvation. Is He
humble and mounted on a donkey, on
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a cult on the full of a
donkey. And so, with all of
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these hopes, he is going to
establish this kingdom. He is going from
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the river to the ends of the
Earth, over our enemies, over all
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of these problems that we have,
from these outsiders. Here is our king,
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right here is Jesus save us,
save us from the Romans, save
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us from the Greeks, save us
from all who would seek to establish themselves
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over Israel, over Jerusalem. And
it's for this reason that we have this
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note in John Twelve about these palm
branches. The palm branches where a nationalistic
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symbol in Israel. We find it
used in various places, in the temple,
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for example, but even more later
on we find that palm branches are
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used on coinage. Palm branches are
used as as symbols of national pride,
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and that's why we have a kind
of victory celebration here. You might imagine,
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all the flags of the country are
being waived at this moment, as
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they are waving these palm branches,
as they are throwing them on the ground.
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Here is their national liberator. We
have a recorded for example, in
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first maccabe's, not a scriptural book, but a recorded history verse this.
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Listen to this verse, first macaby's, thus three hundred and fifty one,
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speaking of a Simon, high priest, who had brought victory for Israel,
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and he entered into it as a
tower the three and twenty day of the
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second month of the hundred and seventy
if and first year, with Thanksgiving and
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branches of palm trees and with Harps
and symbols and vials and hymns and songs,
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because there was destroyed a great enemy
out of Israel, music and song
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and palm branches, because here comes
Simon. In this case he has done
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this great thing. The Israel Light
eminem enemy has been destroyed. In Washington
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DC there is a series of statues
called the statues of liberators, people from
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various Western countries who had liberated countries
from colonial rule. This is how they
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were thinking of Jesus. He was
going to save them, save them in
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re astore of the Nation of Israel. And yet it's not exactly what Zacchara
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and nine says, though there are
promises to restore Israel, there are promises
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to restore Jerusalem, these promises come
in a much larger context. Remember what
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Zacchara and nine says. It says
the battle boat shall be broken off and
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he shall speak peace to the nations. His will shall be from sea to
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sea and from river to the ends
of the Earth. Notice also that this
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one who comes riding on a donkey. He comes peace. He comes not
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on a war horse, but on
this slow and sturdy animal. They,
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these crowds, were doing what the
world is so often tempted to do when
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it finally begins to start to understand
who Jesus is. They coopt him,
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we coopt him to serve temporal,
immediate purposes, forgetting that he comes to
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establish a kingdom that is much grander, much more glorious and much bigger than
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anyone is imagining. When Jesus does
come in victory on the last day,
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it's not going to be large.
I laughing because you know it's not going
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to be. It's going to be
much larger than this. When the mighty
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host of Heaven swoops down into the
earth to gather up the elect to bring
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the resurrection of the dead, millions
and millions of innumerable people are they're caught
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up with the Lord singing his praises, with all of the angels and all
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of these voices, this scene here
won't seem quite so large. The expectations
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to finally get rid of the Romans
will seem like a nothing when Jesus establish
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his rule in his kingdom forever in
ways that are so beautiful. The that
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John in revelation, when he receives
these vintages, he seems to struggle in
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a way to express them. I
saw a temple and it looked like this,
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and then you read it and you
go, Huh, what did it
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look like? So beautiful, so
amazing that his descriptions a tantalize us in
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a way. They make us want
more, they give us hope to understand
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the great power of this king and
he is, this Jesus, but we're
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not quite there yet, and so
there is a kind of mixture of meanings
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going on here. Is Jesus,
the Great Messiah that had long been promised?
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Is he the king of Israel that
everybody was hoping for, the promised
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King and Zachari Andine? Yes.
Is Jesus coming in ascending to his royal
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throne? Yes. Is that symbolized
in this procession and on this donkey?
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Yes. Are the words of the
crowd proper and right? Are they true?
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And what they say save US blessed? Are you king of Israel?
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Yes, yes, yes, but
is the understanding of those who save them,
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of those who are participating? Is
that in the right place? No,
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and we can't really blame them,
because we suffer from this every day.
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We know who Jesus is. We
Love Jesus, we are, we
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worship him, we anticipate him,
we hope for him, but do we
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fully understand who he is? Do
we fully take into ourselves all the comfort
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that he has to offer, all
the strength that he gives us? Do
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we rely on him in every moment
of our lives? No, we don't.
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Our understanding is partial, it's failed, it's mixed. But the good
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news is is that the Lord's arrival
and the Lord's success does not depend on
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our abilities, but on his.
His success is not going to depend on
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these crowds and their praises. It
might seem that way, because very soon
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this Lord who enters in this great
victory parade, will find himself, will
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give himself over to death on across
these leaders who want to arrest him,
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will arrest him. Judas, who
wants to betray him, will betray him
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and he will die and God will
turn away his faith from him and he
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will suffer with suffering that none of
us can even begin to imagine. But
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none of it is dependent on these
crowds. God is using them, even
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in their sinfulness, for his own
glory, to make manifest his promises,
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to show how steadfast he is,
to show how truly is, so that
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our faith in him might be confirmed
even more so that we can cry out
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Hosanna, save us. Perhaps the
crowds had forgotten the other words that are
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proclaimed in psalm eighteen or one hundred
and eighteen, that this, this one
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who comes, is also the stone
who would be rejected. They do forget
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this. The disciples themselves forget it. They flee in terror, wondering what
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will happen to them for being associated
with him, even Peter, who proclaims
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that he would be with him to
the very end. Nevertheless, nevertheless,
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listen to what God will do.
The stone that the builders rejected will become
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the cornerstone, the cornerstone what man
sets aside and says, no, we
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don't need this, no, it
doesn't measure up, no, it's not
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part of our plans. God will
take and used to establish as the foundation
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for his whole city, his whole
temple, his whole people. This one
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that they seek to put to death
will become the life of us all.
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And, as Verse Twenty Three says, in Psalm Eighteen, this is the
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Lord's doing. It is marvelous in
our eyes. This is the day that
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the Lord is made. Let us
rejoice and be glad in it. The
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Lord is good. The Lord is
said fast. The events of the world
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and of our lives. They're up
and down, they're all over the place,
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they hurt, they're happy there.
It's hard, it's good, but
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God is firm, God is strong
and God is steadfast, and is Jesus
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goes on this parade to the grave. It is for our good and he
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will take his place on a throne, but it is that throne is the
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cross. It is he is exalted
he is lifted up, but he does
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so for our salvation. It's not
an accident that this great victory parade is
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surrounded by these two events. First
of Jesus's victory over death in Ras Lazarus
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and his victory over Satan, this
one who has for so long terrorized us
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with the fear of death. As
we go on, and will consider this
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passage next time, in John,
Chapter Twelve we read. We read this.
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Now my soul is troubled. And
what shall I say? Father,
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save me from this hour, but
for this purpose. I have come to
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this hour. Father, glorify your
name. Then a voice came from heaven.
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I have glorified it and I will
glorify it again. The crowd that
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stood there and heard it said that
it had thundered. Others said an angel
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has spoken to him. Jesus answered, this voice has come for your Sake,
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not mine. Now is the judgment
of the world. Now will the
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ruler of this world be cast out. Put Your faith in Jesus Christ,
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in his victory, in his exaltation. He goes to the cross, not
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as some poor soul who got caught
up in some bad political mess. He
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goes to the Cross on his own
authority to conquer death, to conquer Satan
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and to set us all free.
This he does so cry out Hosanna,
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cry out save us and say bless. It is the name of the Lord,
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the one who comes in him.
Let's pray
